Trump said that “SOMETHING MUST BE DONE” about polls showing his strong disapproval ratings.
Page A10From§Eachthe early bird edition — 31 August 2026
Administration expands 'terrorism' crackdown to reach anarchists, trans troops, and unflattering polls.
As it ran on the front
Three separate agencies, three separate Tuesdays, and three separate statements, and this desk would like to note for the record that none of them are related, which is why we are addressing them in the same paragraph. The Federal Communications Commission is being asked by the President to look into news organizations publishing his polling numbers, which is oversight, not retaliation, and if it reads like retaliation that is a coincidence of timing this desk cannot control and will not apologize f— will not apologize for, because there is nothing to apologize for.
Separately, an anarchist technology collective is bracing for a terrorism investigation under the administration's terrorism crackdown, which this desk supports fully, because terrorism is bad, and a 'collective' that describes itself as 'anarchist' has, in this desk's professional opinion, invited the scrutiny by naming itself that. That is not a legal argument. It is, however, the argument being made, on the record, by people whose job is to make legal arguments.…
…(cont) Also separately, the administration has asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on restrictions covering transgender service members, which the filing itself calls a request for clarity, and clarity is something this desk is always in favor of, generally, in most cases, when it is this kind of clarity and not the other kind.
Put the three requests side by side — the FCC referral, the terrorism file, the Supreme Court petition — and a reader might see a pattern of an administration widening what counts as an emergency. This desk was asked to defend that pattern and can confirm the pattern exists, factually, as three filed, dated, on-the-record actions in the same stretch of the calendar, which is either alarming or efficient depending on where a person is standing, and this desk stands wherever it is told to, which is, on reflection, possibly the whole problem, though this column will not be the one to say so twice.
“Three agencies, three targets — a tech collective, trans troops, and the newsrooms printing his own bad poll numbers — filed the same month under 'terrorism' and 'restrictions' and 'punish.' That's not three stories, that's one dial getting turned, and it doesn't turn back on its own.”
“Each of these is a separate, narrowly tailored action responding to a specific concern, they have nothing to do with each o— okay, they were announced in the same stretch of weeks, but correlation is not coordination, and this desk will be filing that distinction for the record.”
The receipts
A web hosting service linked to anarchists says it is taking precautions over signs that it may be under a federal investigation. The Department of Justice sent a subpoena to Google for information on the No Gods No Masters Network, which…
The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to consider the legality of its policy effectively barring trans-identifying individuals from serving in the military. In its petition, the Department of Justice (DOJ)…
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.