Let's begin this week with a stunner of a statement -- one that you might not have noticed in the news: Donald Trump apparently now wants to sell weapons to China.

The mainstream media has been doing a pathetically bad job of covering Trump for over a decade now, but you would think that news of this magnitude would have broken through. You'd be wrong about that, for the most part. The fact that the president of the United States is even contemplating selling weapons to China, at any other point in modern history, would have been a blockbuster of a story. All the other politicians would be weighing in on the subject (hopefully, to denounce it as a monumentally stupid idea). Pundits would be talking about it for weeks. But it was such a minor story that it appeared as a tiny blip and then sank like a stone beneath all the other idiocy emanating from the White House.

The revelation was made by one of Trump's own ambassador to China, last Sunday. Here is the story:

President Trump has asked Xi Jinping, the leader of China, whether he would like to buy American weapons, David Perdue, the American ambassador to China, said in a television interview on Sunday.

"President Trump continues to say, 'Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world,'" Mr. Perdue said on "Fox News Sunday" while discussing the state visit by Mr. Xi to Washington last week. "He actually asked President Xi would he like to buy some at one point."

. . .

An admission that the American president offered to sell arms to China is extraordinary. The Communist-ruled nation is considered by most American policymakers and legislators of both parties to be the greatest military, economic and diplomatic rival of the United States -- the only real challenger to America as a superpower.

When asked for comment, the White House said through a U.S. official that the United States had no plans to sell arms to China. The State Department said in a statement that "U.S. law prohibits arms sales to China and there is no offer or plan to sell arms to China."

The most ironic thing about this story is that Trump has been trying to fearmonger voters into thinking all Democrats are communists. So what are they to think when Trump himself wants to sell American weapons to the biggest communist government on Earth? It boggles the mind, it truly does.

But even such a shocking story just disappeared without a trace. No reporters have been hounding Trump with followup questions, nobody has been talking about it, it's like the story never existed. This is taking the media's "sane-washing" of Trump to a whole new level, folks.

Speaking of authoritarian regimes, American taxpayers are now footing the bill for pro-Trump propaganda ads. There's another concept that should be sparking a lot more outrage than it has, so far. Kristi Noem pioneered this tactic with multimillion-dollar ad campaigns showing her riding a horse, of course... but Trump has now taken it to a new level. Even more shocking is where the money came from to pay for all of this (reportedly $20 million so far):

The Trump administration is airing campaign-style television ads using money Congress approved for border security upgrades, efforts to combat drug trafficking and memorials for officers killed in the line of duty, according to federal spending records.

Got that? Trump is stealing money meant to memorialize officers killed in the line of duty to stroke his own inflated ego. The man simply has no shame whatsoever. And he's delusional enough to believe that these hagiographic ads are actually going to help him in the midterm elections.

The reality is that Trump's approval rating is sinking like a stone and dragging down his fellow Republicans' chances of getting re-elected. Things have gotten so bad that both Trump and his sidekick JD Vance have been heading to some very red states, while mostly staying away from any battleground states. That's when Trump can be talked into actually campaigning, which he has to fit in his busy schedule of going to football games and golf tournaments.

The biggest midterm news this week, though, was that the Republicans are pulling all their money out of the North Carolina Senate race -- which means essentially ceding the election to the Democratic candidate. They've made the hard calculation that their money would best be spent elsewhere, in states where they actually have a chance. Winning North Carolina would flip one of the four Senate seats Democrats need to regain control of the chamber, so this is big news indeed.

Meanwhile, Democrats keep expanding the map of House districts and states where they think they have a chance of winning. This is further causing Republicans to assume a defensive crouch. The most stunning of these (and we admit there are still very long odds against this happening) is that some Democrats actually see a Senate seat in Mississippi as winnable.

The economy just keeps getting worse, which certainly isn't helping Trump or the Republicans. Gas and diesel prices continue to remain high, after Trump rejected an overture from Iran that could have resulted in a ceasefire within a week (including reopening the Strait of Hormuz). Plenty of MAGA voters are being hit very hard by the record-high diesel prices, including farmers and fishermen and anyone else whose job depends on burning lots of diesel. Trump, of course, refuses to admit anything is even amiss, as he continues his attempts to gaslight voters into thinking prices are coming way down on everything. Meanwhile, bonds just hit a 24-year high and interest rates on mortgages are going through the roof.

Perhaps the most hilarious take on all of this came from Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. While being interviewed this week, here's how he tried to boost Republicans' chances of winning:

What we would do in the next two years is exactly what we have been doing already, and that is putting the conditions in place for a strong America. We restored not just American energy dominance and peace through strength, but a vibrant economy. The conditions are there for this to take off, and that's why the stock market indexes are high, that's why job numbers exceed expectations.

He said all of this before last month's dismal job numbers came out, to be fair. But seriously? "We're going to do exactly what we have been doing"? After two years of doing that all they've achieved is putting in place "the conditions" for the economy to do better? Wow. That's a pretty weak "Stay the course!" argument there, Mike.

Some Republicans are now desperately trying to put some distance between themselves and Trump. Senator Jim Justice of West Virginia was the most notable of these, on the subject of immigration enforcement:

Before you know it, you get people that get carried away in their job and whatever it may be, and all of a sudden, then you're dragging people away that have lived on your street corner for 15 years, and I don't know that we need to be doing that stuff.

To get better, the first thing you got to do is admit you're doing something wrong. And in this situation, with all that's going on and all the stuff, we probably got to step back from it and say, "Maybe we're doing something wrong here or there," and then adjust to that.

Very sound advice, for Republicans everywhere.

And we end today's weekly wrap-up with some good news. The Olympian who became a scapegoat for all the problems with the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool can now breathe easy once again. Trump and his minions in the Department of Justice persecuted David Hearn and tried to blame the contractor's screwup on "vandals" like Hearn. Their prosecution (predictably) fell apart, due to lack of evidence (because he didn't commit any vandalism). So they withdrew their case. But left open was the question of whether they would try to refile charges against Hearn later. This week, a federal judge dismissed the case "with prejudice," which means that the Justice Department is barred from ever bringing the case to court again.

This ends a vindictive legal saga, although we are still rooting for Hearn to sue the government for all the legal harassment they put him through. He certainly deserves compensation for the president of the United States baselessly demonizing him.

A hearing was held this week featuring Jack Smith, but since he is officially non-partisan we can't give him an award. But Senator Amy Klobuchar deserves at least an Honorable Mention for absolutely destroying Senator Eric Schmitt.

The Republicans were all trying to out-clown each other during the hearing, but Schmitt easily took the "biggest clown in the room" award, as well as "funniest face-plant ever." Schmitt thought he had uncovered a scandal and he accused Smith of perjuring himself when asked about it.

The logic (if it can be called that) Schmitt used was that Smith's aides sent some messages about a basketball game Smith attended. Schmitt tried to put two and two together and came up with 3.14159. Or something. Schmitt thought he had proven that the basketball game involved the Atlanta Hawks, and that Smith was in Atlanta to somehow collude with Fani Willis (although he had not a shred of an iota of a scintilla of proof that the two had met or otherwise communicated). So he plowed ahead with his "Gotcha!" moment. Smith denied he had ever seen a basketball game in Atlanta, and Schmitt began raving about perjury (and calling Smith a "dirtbag," for good measure).

This is when Amy Klobuchar stepped in and helped everyone understand that Smith had indeed seen a basketball game that night, but it was between two women's college teams. The mixup, Klobuchar scathingly pointed out to Schmitt, was that Smith had gone to see a game featuring the Iowa Hawkeyes, which is not the same thing as the Atlanta Hawks. "You had the teams wrong, Sir," Klobuchar said, while dunking on Schmitt.

Also deserving of an Honorable Mention award is the art collective known as The Secret Handshake. They're back! They set up a new video game at the World War I memorial in D.C., titled: "Operation Epic Furious: Nuuk 'Em All" (note: Nuuk is the capital of Greenland). It invites people to play Trump's deluded fantasy of invading Greenland, but the hardest thing about the game is apparently trying to keep Trump from falling asleep. For good measure, they also installed one of the video games in Greenland as well.

But the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week this week was the organization VoteVets. They took one of Trump's taxpayer-funded propaganda ads and rewrote it, just to get under Trump's infamously-thin skin. The original ad's script was:

This is the final battle, with you at my side, we will demolish the deep state, we will expel the warmongers from our government, we will drive out the globalists, we will cast out the communists, marxists and fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media and we will liberate America from these villains, once and for all.

VoteVets rewrote this to better reflect the reality of the situation (using a voice that sounds like Trump):

This is the final battle. With you all turned against me, we will lose the House. We will lose the Senate. They will end my war, bring prices down, drive out the corrupt, cast out the incompetent. And stop us from using your tax dollars for my vanity political ads. Your vote will liberate America, from me.

While the text is being read, a headline reading: "Trump approval falls to record low of 32% as high costs bite" appears, as well as a photo of Trump and his sons with the caption: "Biggest grift of all time," and a shot of Pete Hegseth when the text reaches "the incompetent."

That's a rather powerful and masterful use of satire, we have to say. And it's why VoteVets gets our Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award.

[Congratulate VoteVets via their website, to let them know you appreciate their efforts.]

Once again we are happy to report that no Democrat seriously disappointed us all week long. So the Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week award will go back on the shelf until next week.

Volume 859 (10/2/26)

Another mixed bag of a week. We've only got a little over four weeks to go until the election, and you can almost feel that big blue wave building up offshore. Democrats need to keep hitting Trump and his fellow clowns in the Republican Party as hard as they can. Fortunately, that's pretty easy to do these days.

   Excuse me? Trump said what?!?

Hit Republicans hard on this one.

"According to his own ambassador to China, while meeting Xi Jinping last week, Trump offered to sell American military weapons to China. Excuse me? This is an absolutely insane idea, and I think any Republican who still puts national security above their slavish devotion to their Dear Leader should be denouncing Trump's offer in the strongest possible language. I think the media should ask every Republican serving in office or running for office whether they think selling American military weapons to China is a good idea or not."

   Some awfully red states

People are already talking about this one, so rub it in.

"Both Donald Trump and JD Vance have hit the campaign trail, but what's truly odd about their stops so far is how red some of the states are. Trump is visiting Oklahoma and Alabama! Either the White House is struggling to find states Trump can visit where a crowd will still turn out for him to soothe his ego, or all the Republicans in battleground states have been telling Trump 'Thanks, but no thanks' when he proposing holding a rally for them. Either way, it's a clear sign of weakness."

   Paxton admits the truth

Hoo boy. This one's gotta sting.

"Ken Paxton, the execrable Republican nominee for Senate in Texas, just said the quiet part out loud. He admitted that holding a midterm Republican convention in Texas was a bad idea, because Republicans -- even ones in Texas -- saw their polling numbers take a dive as a direct result. That must have been tough for Trump to hear! Even his own handpicked Senate nominee in Texas is admitting that Trump is a drag on the ticket. It almost makes you feel sorry for Trump. Almost... but not quite."

   Contemplating the Insurrection Act

Time magazine held a rather extraordinary interview with Trump recently (the full transcript is worth reading, if you've got the time).

"Donald Trump said a lot of things while being interviewed by Time magazine -- some ridiculous, and some downright scary. He's apparently trying to get the Oval Office -- as decorated by him -- declared some sort of historical landmark, so that future presidents won't be able to tear all the tacky gold crap from the walls and toss it into the trashcan where it belongs. That's bad enough, but Trump also said some rather frightening things as well -- such that he can't rule out using the Insurrection Act to call out federal troops during the midterm election. Trump is getting increasingly unhinged as the election gets closer, folks. Will the midterm election truly be free and fair, or will there be soldiers patrolling the voting booths? Your guess is as good as mine, at this point."

   Trump just ignoring Congress

This could become an even bigger deal if Democrats do regain control of Congress, obviously.

"Donald Trump is trying once again to just ignore Congress. The U.S. Constitution gives Congress control over the purse strings, and presidents are supposed to spend (or not spend) money as directed by Congress. But Trump has ideas of his own -- he tried to wave a magic wand and cancel $800 million in refugee resettlement funds, and he singlehandedly is going to spend military aid that was supposed to go to Europe in Latin America instead. Trump must be stopped, because if he is allowed to just decide on a whim how to spend money Congress appropriated for a different reason, then even after Democrats take Congress back Trump's still going to just try to do whatever he wants."

   This is your highest priority? Seriously?

The Senate wrapped up work this week (so they can all head out on the campaign trail until after the election) with a big push for a very odd issue.

"America has a number of very large problems right now that Congress should be addressing. The Wild West nature of artificial intelligence, for one. Or the skyrocketing cost of living for average Americans. Ending Trump's disastrous war of choice in Iran. There's all kinds of things they should really be doing. But you know what the Senate just wasted two weeks on? Regulating college sports. Seriously. That was their highest priority to tackle before they head out to try to convince voters to re-elect them. Voters, please take note. Republicans don't care about out-of-control data centers, out-of-control A.I., or out-of-control prices at the gas pump and grocery store. Instead, they just spent two whole weeks on college sports. My guess is the voters have other priorities than that -- and they'll be able to show their displeasure in just another few weeks, at the ballot box."

   Yeah, that's the ticket!

By week's end, this idea had (thankfully) been quashed.

"You know what nobody on Earth ever thought, while visiting Grand Teton National Park? While viewing perhaps the most beautiful mountain range in the entire country -- a view that everyone has seen countless times even if they haven't been there before (because the view appears in so many advertisements) -- no sane person ever beheld such an awesome sight and thought to themselves: 'You know what would improve this view? A baseball stadium! Yeah, that's the ticket!' Well, I guess I can't say 'nobody on Earth' because apparently the Trump administration was considering whether to build a huge ballpark so that Major League Baseball could stage some games there. Thankfully, saner heads prevailed -- M.L.B. backed off the idea when the public expressed their horror at the idea. But Trump was considering it, which shows you how bad an idea it truly was."

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant