Better in their words…

JEFF CHILDERS MAY 20, 2026

Good morning, C&C, it’s Wednesday! your roundup includes: a Republican primary bloodbath, an NYT meltdown set to mixed metaphor, a sneaky-good Trump settlement addendum, $36 billion in fines on illegals, an LA voter-fraud plea, three Mexican officials surrendering at the border, a Spanish ex-PM raid, a Venezuelan billionaire extradition, and — possibly today — the indictment of Raúl Castro.

🌍🇺🇸 ESSENTIAL NEWS AND COMMENTARY🇺🇸🌍

🔥🔥🔥

After yesterday’s Southern State party purge, the New York Times felt its meds wearing off, blood rushed to its head, and it simply could not make up its narrative mind. Either Trump is an aging, damaged president with flagging popularity who is fumbling his way into a midterm catastrophe, or else he is Trumpzilla, dominating the GOP and smashing all resistance. The Times, unable to choose, went with both at the same time. Headline: “Trump Crushes Republican Dissent.”

Almost 30 Republicans backed by the President either won or took first place in GOP primaries yesterday in Georgia, Alabama, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. The headline story (for progressives) was the ignominious defeat of iconoclastic seven-term incumbent Thomas Massie, who lost to a first-timer, farmer, and former SEAL, Ed Gallrein, who enjoyed Trump’s endorsement. It wasn’t even close.

The Times practically wrote an emo poem about it. It unleashed soaring, dramatic rhetoric more appropriate for amateur theater than straight news. “President Trump’s midterm retribution tour,” the paper sang, mixing metaphors, “reached its apogee on Tuesday, where his most prominent G.O.P. antagonist in Congress lost to the president’s handpicked candidate, a relatively unknown dairy farmer who had waged only a single unsuccessful political campaign.”

It was a strange turn of phrase. I’m not sure how a ‘retribution tour’ can reach ‘apogee,’ unless the tour bus was strapped to a missile. But I am sure neither of those phrases belongs in straight news copy. That awkward mixed metaphor showed just how angrily the Times was chewing the carpet after Massie lost.

The NYT’s sad, shriveled heart had obviously been pining for a better story this morning.

Anyway, since I don’t punch right, I won’t spike the ball on Massie’s loss. Not just that, but during the pandemic, Mr. Massie was one of the most consistently anti-lockdown, anti-spending, anti-mandate members of Congress, which has earned him a terrific amount of grace from me. But I could see this coming.

I was sorry to see Massie pick a very public spat with President Trump over a constantly growing number of issues —Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, the new ballroom, Epstein, his reserved Congressional parking spot, the lack of decaf in the break room, and so on. He also voted against last year’s Big Beautiful Bill, which was nearly all that Trump managed to squeeze out of 2025’s Congress.

It was like an aggressive drunk getting in the bouncer’s face. “Mr. Massie made no apologies for opposing the president,” the Times explained. He was acting tough. But, “It did not work.”

During the pandemic, we needed a professional irritant who fought everything. But it’s a different time now. We only have 2.5 more years to sew this thing up. In 2026, we need team players, not wrecking balls. Massie just couldn’t switch gears.

🔥 Also in Kentucky, Trump-endorsed Andy Barr won his primary over former Senate leader Mitch McConnell’s handpicked protegé, Daniel Cameron. Most observers thought McConnell’s 40+ year legacy of influence would carry the day. It didn’t. It carried a gnat, at best.

At the end of the year, McConnell is finally going, and now his anointed replacement is going nowhere.

In Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, who was arguably responsible for two criminal cases against President Trump, came in third in the gubernatorial race. That means he’s out— the Times called it the “end of the road.” In even better news, two Republican Supreme Court candidates held their positions against Democrat challengers funded and backed by Barack Obama

Georgia’s highest court will remain solidly conservative (8-1).

In Alabama, Trump-endorsed Senate candidate Barry Moore won his primary and will face Democrat Doug Jones. In Pennsylvania, GOP registration expert Scott Pressler won a seat on Beaver County’s GOP State Committee.

🔥 I couldn’t find a clear historical example of any previous president with Trump’s political disciplinary powers. (If you can think of one, let me know in the comments.) FDR tried to purge conservative Democrat incumbents who opposed his progressive New Deal policies, but was only partly successful. President Trump’s current run is essentially what FDR yearned for but never fully grasped.

The Times toted up other recent examples, like Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and the state legislators in Indiana. “All lost their primary races after Mr. Trump endorsed Republican rivals and urged voters to toss out the incumbents,” the article explained.

“By now,” the Times warned darkly, “the lesson for Republican politicians is clear: Oppose Mr. Trump at your own risk.”

There’s a bigger point here, and it’s the precise opposite of the Times’s witless frame. The Times ominously described the GOP having become “firmly in thrall” of a “cult of personality” dominated by a hypnotic former reality-TV star. But it’s the exact opposite. It’s pure representative government. Trump didn’t purge the incumbents.

Primary voters purged the incumbents.

Think of this: Nearly 20% of the GOP-controlled Senate (up to ten Senators) will be replaced this year. That kind of political earthquake hasn’t happened since at least 1980.

🔥 Trump can endorse whoever he wants and can rant on Truth Social all he wants, all day long. But Cassidy, Massie, Raffensperger, Indiana State lawmakers, John Cornyn, McConnell’s protegé Whatshisname— they didn’t lose because Trump.

Cassidy didn’t lose because Trump woke up one day and felt like purging him; he lost because Republicans never forgot his impeachment vote and were finally offered a viable alternative. Massie didn’t lose because Trump hates his spirited personality; he lost because he kept voting against policies that the GOP base actually wants, and they decided they were done with the “Mr. No” show. Raffensperger didn’t flame out because Trump’s feelings were hurt; he flamed out because Republican voters believe he’d helped Joe Biden carry Georgia and then covered it up— and this time, instead of watching him get promoted to governor, they snatched the promotion away.

This is not a cult of personality. These incumbents only lost their seats because actual Republican voters in their states decided that we want someone who will align with the president who we chose and his America First agenda.

It’s really that simple. We don’t want Congressmen to be slaves to Donald Trump. We want them to be slaves to the agenda. If that means supporting and defending the President, then just do it and quit whining about it. That’s the distinction the Times tries to misinform readers about; it wants us to feel uneasy that Trump has become too powerful, so we don’t realize how much power we have.

In other words, the Times’s fake narrative is: reality‑TV star dominates a personality cult. That is a narrative designed to fracture conservatives. But the reality is, Republican primary voters finally figured out how to purge the RINOs.

🔥🔥🔥

A little more information about the Trump settlement emerged yesterday, and now it looks even better. The Times sourly reported, “I.R.S. to Drop Audits of Trump and Family.” It arrived in the form of a short contractual addendum to Monday’s Trump-DOJ settlement agreement.

The Times lyrically called the short addendum “bare-knuckled audacity,” “maximalist measures with minimum outside scrutiny,” and “the latest in a series of maneuvers that blurred the all-but-vanished boundary between official department business and the private interests of a president intent on using his power to extract financial gain from the federal government for himself and his allies.” Whew!

Unsurprisingly, this time the Times did link the short settlement addendum, even though yesterday it didn’t link the much more interesting main contract. Close readers noticed the addendum contradicted the Times’ deceptive framing, in that ‘tax returns’ are barely mentioned in its three paragraphs, nor does the word ‘audit’ appear anywhere:

Instead, we see a very common type of global release paragraph that closes off all current and potential civil claims (including those that the government could have brought) through yesterday’s date. Nothing is unusual. Even the strong all-caps phrases like “FOREVER BARRED” are boilerplate in settlement agreements.

Notably, this release does not cover criminal claims, or even any civil claims arising after May 19th, 2026. It does include alleged tax matters —which could moot any pending audits— but it was much broader than that.

Still, the broad release language is common to any ordinary civil settlement template. The Plaintiffs who’ll benefit include President Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, and several of their companies. Short of a pardon, this is extremely valuable protection for President Trump and his family after he leaves office, in case the next administration sues them for overvaluing a pool cabana.

The release wasn’t a gift. It wasn’t free. The President (and his sons) traded three significant lawsuits for it.

Squishy Republicans were on full display yesterday, displaying their magical powers of not reading the room. For instance, Senate Majority Leader John Thune criticized the settlement, said he “was not a big fan” of the reparations fund, noted all the “blowback” (from the media), and added that he did not see any “purpose” to it. He should tread carefully.

Not to be outdone, Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) “raised several questions about the fund, including its legal basis, how eligibility for compensation would be determined, and how amounts would be set.”

Do Thune and Collins read Twitter? Or at least have their assistants check Twitter before running their mealy mouths? So far as I can tell, the $1.776B reparations fund is one of the most popular ideas the Trump 2.0 team has yet had.

🔥🔥🔥

While the media is engaged, obsessing over primaries and the Iran War —no fewer than four Iran stories appeared on the NYT’s home page this morning— something massive is quietly unfolding. (Q people: it’s habbening.) This week brings a silent flurry of lethal lawfare and under-reported DOJ indictments of citizens and foreign nationals, both inside and outside the country. First, two days ago, Bloomberg Law reported, “Trump Is Taking Immigrants to Court, Seeking Millions in Fines.”

You won’t leave? Fine, we are suing you. Between last January and this March, the Trump Administration has issued 65,101 civil fines totaling $36 billion dollars to illegals, based on how long they’ve been in the U.S. without a valid visa. ICE is now taking aliens to court, and DHS is seizing their federal payments (like tax refunds) to pay the mounting fines.

“It’s all part of a scare campaign,” complained activist Hasan Shafiqullah (fake name alert), an attorney at the Legal Aid Society NGO. “It’s part and parcel of creating an environment where it’s so painful to be here if you don’t have status that you’ll agree to self-deport.” Yes, exactly.

Immigration law experts say the use of this long-standing statutory power is unprecedented. Congress passed the fine decades ago, but no previous Administration was ever brave enough to actually do it.

🔥 Next, on Monday, NBC reported, “Woman accused of paying homeless people on LA’s Skid Row to register to vote pleads guilty.” That thing Democrats keep saying never happens happened again. And prosecutors are making a deal.

According to her plea agreement, for about 20 years, Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong had a side hustle as a “petition circulator.” She was paid by individuals and entities –called “coordinators”– to collect voter signatures on petitions for ballot initiatives, referendums, and recalls.

After gathering said signatures, Armstrong turned in the petitions. Coordinators paid her a set amount for each registered voter’s signature. The amount per signature varied by ballot initiative. All this created some pretty bad incentives, some temptations that Brenda found irresistible.

Brenda eventually had a brainstorm. She went to homeless camps in Skid Row, and offered the local lunatics cigarettes and a few bucks to fill out voter registration forms and sign her petitions. Whenever homeless people lacked mailing addresses —which was often— she told them to put down her home address. (Which also means all their mail-in ballots went to Armstrong’s house.)

James O’Keefe, wearing a cunning disguise of a fake mustache or something, first broke the case by filming Armstrong passing cash to bums who then filled out her elections forms. The DOJ had her indicted within about two weeks. Accountability.

Some speculate that Armstrong is now a cooperating witness as part of her plea deal, leading investigators up the chain. This could also be a test case by the Trump administration, a first step in going after the big voter registration NGOs long accused of ballot harvesting. We shall see.

🔥 On Sunday, Breitbart reported, “Pressure Mounts for Mexican President as Third Government Official Surrenders to U.S. on Drug Charges.” Watch out for falling dominoes! This story is particularlyfascinating.

As I reported last week, the DOJ has recently indicted ten sitting Mexican public officials, including one who is the equivalent of a US state governor. All charges are for cartel-level drug crimes and narcoterrorism. The Mexican government generally, and President Claudia Scheinbaum specifically, have stubbornly insisted they are all innocent and the US should mind our own taco stand.

But over the last few days, three of the indicted ten —30% of them!— have gone to the border and voluntarily surrendered to US authorities, after which they were arrested and processed. They all face life sentences.

Their surrender put a crinkle in the Mexican denials. Why surrender if you’re innocent and the government is protecting you? Maybe to cooperate? Given who the men are, the potential implications are pretty wild.

One of the three surrendered men, for example, was Mexican Senator Enrique Cazárez, who was previously Ruben Moya’s chief of staff. Moya is the Governor of the Sinaloa region, who is also under indictment (but has no intention of turning himself in). So Senator Cazárez knows the operational structure of the incestuous cartel-government relationship at the highest levels.

Presumably, Cazárez didn’t turn himself in for the free flight to Manhattan; he’s clearly cooperating.

Some commentators are starting to wonder whether an indictment of Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum is coming next. That would be the geopolitical equivalent of an earthquake that sinks Baja California.

🔥🔥🔥

There was more. All in the same week. Yesterday, the New York Times reported, “Zapatero, Spain’s Former Leader, Investigated for Graft.” The carefully manicured, globalist, pro-EU, anti-US, Davos/WEF politician was Spain’s socialist president between 2004 and 2011. He’s also close buddies with former Venezuelan ‘Presidente’ Nicolas Maduro. NBC called it “another blow to the leftist government beset by scandals.”

Now Zapatero (literally, ‘shoe eater’) has been placed under official criminal investigation, and his offices have been raided. It’s historic. Zapatero is “the first former leader in Spain’s modern democratic history to face a criminal investigation.” Just like Trump in 2022. Makes you think, what?

The investigation concerns a covid-era airline bailout, in which Zapatero allegedly directed 1% of the billions in bailout money to himself through what we now recognize as the classic NGO money-laundering shell game. You might wonder what this case has to do with the United States. Um:

According to NBC, Spanish officials said that Homeland Security got data off the mobile device of one of Zapatero’s co-conspirators and gave it to Spanish officials. So … how did Homeland Security get the goods? The reportista didn’t say. Nobody’s saying.

One also notes without comment that El Presidente Maduro has been in U.S. custody since January. I’m not saying he’s singing like a cardinal that pecked up some Jolt Cola. I’m just saying.

🔥 And … more. Two days ago, the New York Times reported, “Venezuela Extradites Billionaire Tycoon to the U.S.” On Saturday, Venezuela turned over another one of Maduro’s “key allies,” a Colombian-born billionaire “tycoon” named Alex Saab, 54. In an echo of the Zapatero case, Saab was charged by the DOJ with “enriching himself through lucrative government contracts.”

This, said the Times, “marks an escalation of a purge by Venezuela’s new acting president, Delcy Rodríguez.” The Times described Ms. Rodriguez as essentially helping the U.S. de-Maduro-ize Venezuela:

It’s not Saab’s first rodeo. He was arrested by Trump 1.0 officials in 2020 after visiting Iran. He stayed in a US prison until 2023, when the Autopen pardoned him. Now he’s back in custody, under Trump 2.0 this time.

Again, one wonders at the timing of Saab’s re-arrest to Maduro’s arrest back in January.

🔥 Last, yesterday CBS reported, “Raúl Castro indictment expected to be announced by U.S. officials in Miami today, sources say.” This story is a little more speculative, since all that is known for sure is the DOJ said it would make an announcement today. Since it’s in Miami, it’s the anniversary of an event linked to Raúl Castro, and “sources” confirm it, people suppose DOJ plans to announce his indictment.

Raul —Fidel’s younger brother— is considered the most powerful political force on the Caribbean communist island, even though he’s 94 years old and his head looks a lot like a shrunken apple. Like the others, Castro was also a close ally of former Venezuelan president Maduro.

So what do we make of all these indictments, fines, cases, and arrests? All coming so fast, too.

Now ask yourself— what if, rather than a bunch of unrelated DHS and DOJ cases, this is all a single operation? What if snatching Maduro was only the beginning of a vast law enforcement operation sweeping up corrupt communists all over the Western Hemisphere, from Central and South America to southern Europe? A sweep that reaches the top levels of foreign governments and power structures, from Sinaloan governors to former Spanish presidents to Cuban strongmen to Colombian billionaires?

As usual, and perfectly appropriately, we don’t yet know what is going on. But it is perfectly obvious now that something is happening, and whatever it is, it’s big. It covers countries and continents. It spans throne rooms and boardrooms. It is making a whole lot of leftists feel more anxious than a blind cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

Media, of course, connects none of the dots, leaving us grasping for clues about the breathtaking scale and ambition of Trump’s plan to remake the new American hemisphere.

Oh, well. That’s why we have Coffee & Covid, and each other. This will only get better— they’ve been planning it all last year. Stay tuned, so you won’t miss something important.

Have a wonderful Wednesday! Coffee & Covid will return tomorrow, with more energizing essential news and caffeinated commentary.