October 28, 2025 ❧ Millions lose SNAP benefits, the Redistricting Wars continue, and there are too many Nazis 

Plus: No more Trump bibles in Oklahoma classrooms, the corporate overlords funding Trump’s ballroom, and New Yorkers get pissed at ICE agents in Chinatown

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HERE & ABROAD

❧ DEEP DIVE: One fourth of states may redraw voting maps ❧

In a democracy, everything is supposed to come down to votes, and President Trump has been obsessed with them since at least 2020, when the votes clearly said he lost the presidential election. Having returned to power, Trump and his allies are now taking measures to keep that pesky “will of the people” from knocking them out again—and to make sure Republicans don’t lose their majority in Congress during the 2026 midterm elections, which polling and historical precedent show they are liable to do. 

To this anti-democratic end, Trump has installed passionate rightwing election fraud activists to monitor elections in the Department of Homeland Security, including Heather Honey, who spooked state election officials after she reiterated 2020 election conspiracy theories on an official call. And if a little Honey isn’t enough, maybe forcing a series of unprecedented, nationwide early redrawings of voting districts will do the trick. 

Here’s a round up of the redistricting fights ramping up across the country. There are probably more states getting in the ring than you think.

Art by C.M. Duffy from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 4, Issue 6

Texas: Don’t mess with Texas, they say—but messing with their residents’ voting rights is just fine. Governor Greg Abbot was the first to kowtow to President Trump’s demands and organize what was then a rare mid-decade redistricting. (Redistricting typically happens once a decade, at the end of the decade.) Democratic representatives fled the state for two weeks to try and stop Abbot to much fanfare, but to no avail. Texas Republicans successfully added an estimated five congressional Republican seats to the state’s electoral map during the last week of August. The new voting districts will take effect in 2026 if they survive challenges in court. 

California: Governor Gavin Newsom swiftly responded to Texas with his own proposed gerrymandering that could return Democrats up to five seats. This redistricting isn’t in the hands of elected state officials, but will be on the ballot on November 4. The Sacramento Bee reported that a recent poll found 57 percent of voters support Proposition 50, which, the Guardian writes, creates new blue seats by “amending the California constitution and suspending the work of the state’s independent redistricting commission until 2031.” Former California Governor, and currently buff, Arnold Schwarzenegger, however, doesn’t like any of this messing around with districts. Former President Barack Obama approves.

North Carolina: In a matter of days, the North Carolina legislature proposed and approved a new map that will give Republicans one extra seat, enacting the change last week. Democratic Governor Josh Stein had no veto power in this situation, but said, “When a candidate or a party loses an election, you’re supposed to work like hell to connect better with voters so that you can win the next time. You do not rig the rules of the game to guarantee your victory, the voters be damned.”

Art by Christopher Matthews from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 4, Issue 6

Missouri: On September 28, Missouri signed into law a new voting map designed to give Republicans one additional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. A petition is under way to force the new map to a popular vote. 

Virginia: The Virginia House of Representatives held a special session yesterday to kick off redistricting in favor of Democrats.

Indiana: Also yesterday, Governor Mike Brown of Indiana—home of the guy the January 6 insurrectionists wanted to publicly hang—announced he will call a special session to attempt a redistricting in favor of Republicans. The Associated Press reports that the state has struggled to secure enough support to push through a new voting map, even though Republicans control the state legislature. 

Kansas: Likewise, Kansas is experiencing Republican pushback, the AP reports. Republicans have a two-thirds majority in both the state house and senate, enough to force a special session and override any veto from the Democratic governor, but have been unable to corral enough votes. 

Also considering redistricting, but in earlier stages: Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, New York, Utah, Louisiana, and Florida. You can see maps of possible, planned and completed mid-cycle gerrymandering here and here. 

It’s a lot, folks! That’s about one fourth of states’ voting geography, redrawn or possibly sent back to the drawing board. The sheer size of the movement means it will likely be consequential. 

❧ In Other News ❧

❧ JAVIER MILEI WINS REELECTION IN ARGENTINA. Libertarian cautionary tale Javier Milei won re-election in Argentina yesterday. If you read this News Briefing, you know the hobbies of this kooky guy include dressing up like a superhero, cloning his dog, giving a chainsaw to Elon Musk, having a corrupt sibling (allegedly), and tanking the Argentinian economy. The economy got so bad, in fact, Trump bailed it out to the tune of $40 billion last month, partly because he likes the conservative policies of the shaggy-haired president, and partly because U.S. Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent was trying to make a lot of money for his friends. Later, in a game of he-said-he-said, Trump claimed that the financial aid was contingent upon Milei winning re-election and the country not swinging left. Bessent then said that wasn’t true. Whatever the truth was, Milei won in what Bloomberg described as a “landslide.” The Argentine stock market subsequently surged by 20 percent after it opened, the value of the peso rose by 10 percent, and Trump said the election’s outcome has “made a lot of money for the United States.”

Art by Christopher Matthews from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 4, Issue 6

❧ ICE CONDUCTS FIRST BIG RAID IN NYC. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement raided a corner in Manhattan’s Chinatown where African vendors were, in the great New York tradition, selling fake designer goods. ICE arrived after Turning Point USA contributor Savannah Hernandez tweeted a video of the corner, suggesting ICE “check out” the few dozen immigrants she alleged were operating “a black market,” amNY reported. The area is near one of New York’s trendiest, and the agents were met with “droves” of enraged New Yorkers, some of which were neo-hipsters wearing (maybe real) designer bags and baggy jeans, as well as city council members. The “spontaneous crowd of protesters …. heckled [the agents],” telling them “to leave New York City” and calling them “Nazis,” THE CITY reported. ICE arrested nine men that they accused of being in the country illegally. 

❧ PUTIN PREPARING TO DEPLOY NUCLEAR MISSLE. On Sunday, Russia announced it successfully tested Burevestnik, a nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable missile that flew over 8,700 miles. According to the New York Times, Putin is now “preparing to deploy it”—though he still needs to identify the missile’s “potential uses.” The obvious use is against Ukraine, where Russia has been waging war for four years. Trump, who promised that he would end the war months ago, called off a summit between Putin and himself last week after he felt Putin was unwilling to compromise. Instead, Trump sanctioned Russian oil companies. The President said the sanctions were inspired by… himself… and the inroads he made in brokering a ceasefire(ish) after he got tough on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Within days, Russia, a country not propped up by the U.S. government, announced it was preparing Burevestnik. The Art of the Deal at work, everyone! 

Art by Harriet Burbeck from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 4, Issue 6

❧ SAY NAZI! In what should be a surprise to no one, twice this month, some Republicans were caught saying racist, Nazi-ish things in writing. The first was a Telegram channel where leaders of Young Republican chapters voiced their support for both Hitler and slavery. The only elected official in the chat, 26-year-old Vermont State Senator Samuel Douglass, stepped down, and about half of Young Republican chapters condemned the messages. (Half is not a lot, considering someone wrote “I love Hitler.”)

The second incident involved Paul Ingrassia, Trump’s pick to head the Office of Special Counsel. The 30-year-old lawyer and former podcaster withdrew his nomination after texts leaked in which he proudly admitted to “a Nazi streak.” Congressional Republicans have viewed Ingrassia suspiciously throughout his confirmation hearings due to his inexperience and history of inflammatory comments (see: “Congress should make J6 a national holiday”). His airtight defense: he doesn’t really remember what he posts on social media. Heretofore, Ingrassia has served as the White House Liaison for Homeland Security. 

CURRENT-EST AFFAIRS

What’s new in the magazine this week?

Graham Platner and the Left’s Masculinity Crisis

Republicans aren’t the only ones to get caught with a little Nazi on their breath recently. Graham Platner, a previous subject of this News Briefing, is an ex-marine, leftist oyster farmer who, until recently, was polling 30 points ahead of Maine Governor Janet Mills in the state’s Democratic Senate primary. And then came the old (and kind of recent) racist, homophobic Reddit posts and the revelation that, for two decades, he had a Nazi Totenkopf tattooed on chest (unwittingly, he puzzlingly claims). Now, he trails Mills by five points, but still has defenders on the left, including one Bernie Sanders. This week online, Yasmin Nair writes that the controversy has revealed something larger and more uncomfortable about the American left: its soft spot for rugged, repentant men in camouflage, and its willingness to cut them perhaps too much slack.

❧ In More News ❧

❧ OKLAHOMA’S NEW SUPERINTENDENT TAKES TRUMP BIBLES OUT OF CLASS. Oklahoma classrooms have been released from the rightwing culture crusade waged by State Superintendent Ryan Walters, who held the position from 2022 until last month. Walters enacted policies that sounded like Grok, X’s problematic AI agent, wrote them. He purchased 55,000 Trump-endorsed bibles to be put in classrooms, made teachers moving to Oklahoma from “liberal states” pass an “anti-woke” test on PragerU (you can apparently get every question wrong and still pass), filmed himself owning the libs and wanted the video to be shown in classrooms, mandated students be taught there were “discrepancies” in the 2020 election, and suggested not teaching anything about Black Lives Matter. The much less cringe, much more grounded in reality Lindel Fields has taken over as Oklahoma Superintendent and has quickly moved to reverse Walter’s most outlandish decisions. Fields dropped the requirement that Trump bibles be in every classroom, stopped the woke tests, and is reviewing changes Walters made to the facts of U.S. history. Is this... normality returning? 

Art by Jason Adam Katzenstein from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 4, Issue 6

❧ REPUBLICANS WON’T USE EMERGENCY FUNDS FOR FOOD STAMPS. Because of the ongoing government shutdown, SNAP benefits will be suspended this Saturday, leaving up to 42 million people unsure where their next meal will come from. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, decided against using its emergency funds to keep the program running, claiming in a memo that this is not an emergency, but a situation artificially created by Democrats. At the same time, Americans are now seeing what insurance premiums look like without the Affordable Care Act tax credits that Democrats have shut down the government to try and extend. Window shopping has begun on healthcare exchanges, and applicants are being met with premiums that are, on average, 30 percent higher. I’d vomit at the price, but I don’t know if I can afford to be sick anymore. (For what it's worth, the troops are being paid during the shutdown with a $130 million donation from Timothy Mellon. Of the billionaire Mellon family.)

Art by Christopher Matthews from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 4, Issue 6

❧ PRIVATE DONORS FUND EAST WING DEMOLITION. NOT FOOD STAMPS. In a government project that does not want for cash, the entire East Wing of the White House has been demolished to make way for Trump’s new 90,000 square foot, probably gilded ballroom, its price tag rapidly swelling from $100 million to $300 million. The White House released a list of the private donors funding the controversial remodel, and it is full of all your most beloved corporate overlords, like Meta, Google, Coinbase, and Lockheed Martin, both Winklevoss twins, and the guy who funds Birthright trips to Israel. CBS News previously reported that the donors might be able to have “their names etched inside the White House forever.” But no one wants their name inside the USDA?

ANIMAL FACT OF THE WEEK

Parrots name the parrots they love with little peeps!

A few weeks after hatching, green parrotlets in Venezuela began identifying themselves using a specific pattern of peeps, NPR reports. Everyone in a parrot family has their own peeps, too, and they call out to each other using these parrot peep names. It’s not clear where the names come from, but parents might be naming their chicks. Never has any being meant it more when they say “these are my peeps.”

Image via kulyka on flickr, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Writing and research by Emily Carmichael. Editing and additional material by Alex Skopic and Nathan J. Robinson. Header graphic by Cali Traina Blume. This news briefing is a product of Current Affairs Magazine. Subscribe to our gorgeous and informative print edition here, and our delightful podcast here.

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