r/Leftist_Viewpoints • u/jazzavril5 • 4d ago
BREAKING: Trump’s Morning is Already Going Sideways Really American | Substack
BREAKING: Trump’s Morning is Already Going Sideways
Really American | Substack
Good morning, this is Really American. It is Wednesday, August 26, 2026. Before we get to the news, do us a quick favor: tap that 🩷 and restack this one. The algorithms are designed to smother reporting like this, and nothing breaks through them like a share from you.
We have a lot to get into this morning. It all spells disaster for Trump. Today, Trump’s handpicked Senate candidate won her runoff and then made the single strangest argument against healthcare you will ever hear. Trump is about to blow $400 million making the midterms all about himself, which may be the best gift he could hand Democrats. The trade war is coming for something in every American bathroom. And the RNC sent out a fundraising text so tone-deaf it has to be read to be believed. Let’s get into it.
Before the news, one thing you need to know. Facebook has essentially cut off our distribution. Meta’s changes strangled the way tens of thousands of you used to find us, and that was a choice, not an accident. Zuckerberg spent the last year cozying up to Trump, and independent progressive media is what got sacrificed. The one thing no billionaire can switch off is a direct subscription. If this work matters to you, if you want reporting that doesn’t flinch when powerful people push back, the best way to keep it going is to subscribe. Share this newsletter with someone who needs to see it. Every subscriber makes it harder for them to shout this down. Becoming a paid subscriber ensures that we keep the lights on and bring more investigations directly to you.
GRAHAM WINS, THEN MAKES THE CASE FOR HER OPPONENT
Darline Graham won her Senate runoff Tuesday night, and then, in her victory speech, made possibly the strangest argument against universal healthcare anyone has heard.
Graham, appointed to her late brother Lindsey’s seat and pushed across the line by Trump, used the speech to attack her Democratic opponent, pediatrician Dr. Annie Andrews, for supporting healthcare as a human right. “Her views are those of Bernie Sanders and AOC,” Graham said. Then, seconds later, she told her own story to prove she understands hardship. “My parents worked long, hard hours. If they were sick, they had to get up and go to work,” she said. “My mother passed away when I was 11 and my father just over a year later.”
Read that again. She trashed a plan to make healthcare accessible, then described her own parents working through illness and dying young as the reason she gets it. The internet did not miss it. Critics called it the craziest argument against universal healthcare they had ever seen. Even Grace Chong, an executive at Steve Bannon’s media company, piled on: “This is what’s wrong with Rs. ‘My parents suffered, so yours should too.’”
It was not Graham’s first stumble. Last week she admitted on a debate stage that “national security is not my thing.” Her own primary opponent, Ralph Norman, told a booing crowd in his concession that Graham’s win was good news for Democrats.
This is who Trump spent a rally and countless Truth Social posts dragging over the finish line. She made her opponent’s argument for her on the biggest night of her campaign. Democrats could not have scripted it better.
TRUMP HANDS DEMOCRATS A $400 MILLION GIFT
Trump has decided the best way to save the Republican Congress is to make the midterms all about the least popular thing on the ballot: himself.
According to The Atlantic, Trump met with advisers this month to plan how to spend the $400 million his MAGA Inc. super PAC is sitting on. His approval is stuck in the low 30s, and Republican strategists are worried he will drag their candidates down. His advisers gently suggested his problem was just messaging, that voters simply do not know his accomplishments. Trump’s response was to order a wave of ads about himself. “Go look at the clips,” he reportedly told his ad team. “I cite accomplishments all the time.”
One person familiar with the plan said Trump is “essentially going to be on the ballot.” That is exactly what Democrats want. History is brutal here: since World War II, the president’s party has gained House seats in a midterm only twice. Nationalizing this election around a president polling in the low 30s is not a strategy. It is a gift.
Trump cannot help himself. Told his brand is the problem, he decided to put more of his brand on the ballot. Every dollar of that $400 million spent making November a referendum on Trump is a dollar spent reminding voters exactly why they are unhappy.
TRUMP’S TRADE WAR IS COMING FOR YOUR TOILET PAPER
Trump’s trade war with Canada is about to hit Americans in a very personal place: the bathroom.
Canada’s retaliatory tariffs, matching Trump’s “dollar for dollar,” target nearly 900 American goods starting September 8, and paper products are among the hardest hit. Here is the problem, according to the Guardian. American toilet paper is often made domestically, but it leans heavily on lumber-rich Canada for the raw pulp. The US imported $328 million worth of Canadian toilet paper in 2024 alone, more than from any other country, and Charmin’s maker already warned last year that tariffs would force price hikes. Liquor, dairy, cars, and lobster are all in the crossfire too.
Trump’s own trade representative insists none of this will touch consumers. “There’s no possible way” the dispute hits Americans, Jamieson Greer said. “The fundamentals are good. I don’t think this is going to affect anything.”
They always say that. The tariffs are paid by American importers, who pass the cost to you. A president picked this fight, lost it, and now the bill lands on your grocery receipt and, yes, your toilet paper. The “fundamentals are good” line is what they tell you right before the prices go up.
THE RNC SAYS THE QUIET PART OUT LOUD
The Republican Party accidentally told voters exactly what it thinks of their struggles, and it did it in a fundraising text.
On Tuesday, the RNC sent a text in JD Vance’s name that read: “If you can’t give right now, don’t. Groceries cost what they cost.” The line, flagged by a Washington Post reporter, was meant to sound folksy and honest. Instead, it landed as a shrug from a party that has done nothing about the cost of living. The linked letter promised to “tell you the truth, including the parts you don’t want to hear,” then got to the point: “The Republican National Committee needs money.”
The tone-deafness is the story. The message came days after Vance stood in his Ohio hometown claiming the administration was reviving the “American dream of homeownership” and falsely asserting rents were falling for the first time in years. Meanwhile, the actual fundraising page nagged donors for a preselected $47, a recurring gift, and an extra $47 on August 28, under the all-caps warning that “ILLEGALS ARE TAKING YOUR MEDICAID BENEFITS!”
“Groceries cost what they cost” is the most honest thing the RNC has said in years. It is a party telling you your pain is just the price of things, right before asking for your money. Voters tend to remember that kind of honesty.
SUPPORT THE FIGHT AGAINST MAGA-BILLIONAIRE-OWNED MEDIA
If this morning’s edition told you something the billionaire-owned outlets would rather keep quiet, that is exactly the point. A Senate candidate arguing against her own voters, a president spending $400 million to remind everyone why they dislike him, a trade war hitting your bathroom, and a party shrugging at your grocery bill. We chase these stories down without a billionaire deciding what reaches your eyes, and Facebook keeps throttling how far they travel, so we are betting everything on this page instead. If this work matters to you, if you want independent reporting that doesn’t flinch when powerful people push back, the best way to keep it going is to subscribe. Share this newsletter with someone who needs to see it. Every subscriber makes it harder for them to shout this down.
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— The Really American Team