Dark Money Group Using Influencers to Take Down Gen Z Dem Candidate

A dark money group is offering influencers $1,500 for one negative social media post about progressive Illinois House of Representatives candidate Kat Abughazaleh.

MS Now reported that Democracy Unmuted, a secretive, unofficial organization that registered its website two weeks ago, offered TikTok and Instagram influencer Amanda Informed $1,500 to push anti-Abughazaleh rhetoric on social media. She declined, and made the offer known to the media.

Democracy Unmuted is made up of “individuals from the [Illinois] area who have served in the highest offices and been at top of their game in the media,” Matt Anthes, founder of the digital political advocacy firm Advocators, told MS NOW’s Brandy Zadrozny.

“The money didn’t feel right coming from someone who’s not disclosing where the money is coming from,” Amanda Informed told MS NOW. “That’s not something that I want to be involved in. I want to make sure that it’s coming from a source that is not doing nefarious things like interfering with elections.”

Anthes was the one who sent Amanda the offer. But even he remains secretive about the group’s members and funding, stating, “We don’t comment on or disclose the identity of our clients. What we can tell you is that all of our dealings and practices are fully compliant with FEC rules and regulations, including those at our creative agency partner, Upstart Factory.”

According to the memo Amanda received, Democracy Unmuted is asking political influencers on TikTok and Instagram to “encourage voters to look past viral personalities and ask real questions about who is running and why.”

The group alleged that Abughazaleh is a political newcomer, grew up wealthy, and didn’t know her district well enough. “Kat’s campaign appears designed for attention rather than impact,” it stated.

Some influencers may have accepted the money. Missouri-based political influencer Justin Kralemann—who goes by “The Woke Ginger” on social media—essentially read Democracy Unmuted’s anti-Abughazaleh talking points word for word in a recent Instagram and TikTok post, while wearing a hat reading “WOKE” and mispronouncing Abughazaleh’s name.

“It’s important to look past viral personalities and ask who is running and why,” the Woke Ginger said, a near exact quote from the brief. Even still, he has stated that he was not paid for the video.

A literal secret group paying random influencers across the United States to smear one of the more progressive congressional candidates of 2026 should be a massive scandal, but America’s laissez-faire campaign finance laws have made it possible, and completely legal.

“Dark money groups have grown to exercise tremendous influence.… With a lot of these competitive races, these groups can spring up overnight,” said Abigail Bellows, senior policy director of anti-corruption at Common Cause. “These dark money groups use these shadowy vehicles for political participation that really undercuts voters.… It just breeds distrust.”

Abughazaleh’s campaign responded, calling the claims defamatory and asserting that they were funded by foreign interests.

“We have become aware of a coordinated influencer campaign attacking Kat Abughazaleh that appears to be funded through opaque entities exploiting loopholes in federal election law. The materials being circulated are filled with false and defamatory claims about Kat’s background and campaign,” their statement read. “At a minimum, this raises serious questions about transparency and whether voters in Illinois’ 9th District are being targeted by undisclosed money and potentially foreign-linked actors across social media platforms.”

On a new website, Democracy Unmuted claimed that they were “called out” by MS NOW. “Here’s what they didn’t tell you: Reporter Brandy Zadronzny has [sic] long-running relationship and a joint podcast with Ben Collins, partner of candidate Kat Abughazaleh.” But while that may be interesting, it has little to do with the topic of Zadrozny’s article—that a secret organization is offering influencers $1,500 to read from their script.

Abughazaleh is running against a massive primary pool of 15 other Democrats for the chance to replace retiring Representative Jan Schakowsky in Illinois’s 9th congressional district.

Two weeks after he directed American forces to bomb Iran, Donald Trump has revealed he has no notion of when the war will end.

The White House has thus far refused to provide the slightest semblance of a timeline for the latest unfounded Middle East war. But in an interview with Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade Friday, Trump admitted that he also has no clear goal for the war, clouding the possibility for a finite end to the conflict.

Responding to a question about the skyrocketing price of oil and the resulting economic ripples, Trump claimed that the U.S. would “bounce right back so fast” when the war is over.

“When are you going to know when it’s over?” asked Kilmeade.

“When I feel it. When I feel it in my bones,” Trump responded.

There’s been absolutely no concrete evidence from the White House that the violence will end soon. In the same interview, Trump noted that U.S. forces could fight the war “forever.”

“We have unlimited ammunition,” Trump said. “We have, of the high level and medium level—the medium and medium-high level—we have virtually unlimited ammunition, and we’re using it. We’re using it, we could go forever.”

Yet U.S. military officials have stressed that fighting Iran has drastically depleted America’s missile defense systems. In a closed-door meeting with lawmakers on March 3—just days after the conflict began—Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine reportedly said that Iran’s Shahed attack drones were proving to be a more difficult problem than U.S. intelligence initially predicted.

The Shahed drones are capable of flying low and slow, a facet of their design that has made them difficult targets for U.S. air defenses. The military has been mostly successful at intercepting them, using Patriot interceptor missiles—which are designed to destroy ballistic missiles or aircraft—in order to do so. But there’s a significant cost imbalance as a result of the glaring gap in America’s war plan.

Iran’s drones are small, simple to manufacture, and cost roughly $20,000 to produce. They can be launched from almost anywhere, and use GPS to find their target. They’re typically launched in swarms to overwhelm opposing defense systems.

Patriot missiles, meanwhile, cost between $3 million and $4 million per unit. An entire Patriot battery system can cost as much as $1.1 billion, including the launcher, radar, and missiles. As a result of the missiles’ enormous price tag, production of America’s highly sought-after Patriot system is relatively slow compared to its demand. In 2025, Lockheed Martin created 620 units of the Patriot missile. Iran, in comparison, is capable of producing about 10,000 drones per month, reported Reuters.

Brynn Tannehill, a former Iran analyst for the U.S. Naval Reserve, emphasized in The Atlantic that the U.S. and its Gulf allies were chewing through “scarce and costly munitions at an astounding rate.”

The depletion of resources is doubly concerning following The Washington Post’s
reporting last week that Russia was funneling military intelligence to Iran to assist in targeting U.S. forces. So far, Iran has systematically destroyed U.S. missile defense systems across the Middle East, such as radars and command infrastructure. In the early days of the war, an Iranian drone attack on a Kuwait operations center killed six U.S. soldiers and seriously wounded dozens more.

Earlier this week, it became clear that the White House had months earlier been offered the opportunity to buy tech that would have given U.S. forces a dramatic advantage against Iran. The offer was extended by Ukraine, and the the intel was battle-tested: Ukraine has more experience fighting Shaheds than practically any other country, downing the same design under Russia’s flag (Russia rebranded the military tech as “Geran drones”).

The decision to snub the offer has since been discussed as one of the biggest miscalculations thus far in the Iran war.

Donald Trump admitted Friday that Russia is likely helping Iran in its war with the U.S., but doesn’t think it’s a big deal.

Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade asked Trump in a radio interview if he thought Russian President Vladimir Putin is helping Iran in its war with the U.S.

Trump replied, “I think he might be helping them a little bit, yeah, I guess, and he probably thinks we’re helping Ukraine, right?”

Kilmeade then asked Trump if the U.S. is helping Ukraine, and Trump said, “Yeah, we’re helping them also, and so he says that, and China would say the same thing, you know. It’s like, hey, they do it and we do it, in all fairness.”

It’s a blatant admission from the president that he doesn’t care about Russia opposing the U.S. in a war, and a more implicit admission that he knows his decision Thursday to temporarily relax sanctions on Russia will help the country in its war against Ukraine, even if it does alleviate skyrocketing oil prices. The U.S. has backed Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in 2022.

The unprompted mention of China would seem to suggest Trump doesn’t care about its assistance of Iran either, or perhaps it’s a poorly worded reference to U.S. defense agreements with Taiwan. In any case, Trump’s comments fuel ongoing questions as to whether he really considers Russia an adversary—even if the country is providing Iran with help to attack U.S. troops and interests—and how much he actually prioritizes aiding Ukraine.

The Trump administration and its fellow Republicans are going nuts over a CNN report that the White House didn’t adequately plan for Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called the report “fundamentally unserious,” openly welcoming the day the news outlet gets taken over by conservative billionaire David Ellison.

“More fake news from CNN: reports that the Trump administration underestimated the Iran war’s impact on the Strait of Hormuz. Patently ridiculous, of course. For decades, Iran has threatened shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. This is always what they do, hold the strait hostage. CNN doesn’t think we thought of that,” Hegseth said at a press conference Friday.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the story “100% FAKE NEWS” in a long post on X, claiming that “a goal of the Operation itself, to annihilate the terrorist Iranian regime’s navy, missiles, drone production infrastructure, and other threat capabilities is quite literally intended to deprive them of their ability to close the Strait.” This belies the fact that Iran took control of the strait days ago and that no ships have been able to cross it without its approval.

Republican Senator Tom Cotton, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on X that “whoever leaked this lied,” regarding the idea that Trump did not plan for Iran to close the strait.

“CNN should do some fact-checking,” Cotton said. “The U.S. has planned for Iran to try and close the strait for decades.” It’s puzzling, though, how the report could be both a leak and a lie at the same time.

White House communications director Steven Cheung shared Cotton’s post, adding that “when [CNN reporter Zachary Cohen] is on the byline, you know it’s FAKE NEWS. His unnamed sources are former Obama and Biden people, Iranian Regime sympathizers, low-level Democrat staffers on the Hill, and liberal donors/activists.”

GOP Senator Tim Sheehy said, “It is categorically false that they did not plan for Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz. Lawmakers and national security officials have known for years that this was Iran’s plan once their backs were against the wall,” again ignoring the fact that the U.S. was unable to prevent the strait’s closure.

A CNN spokesperson Friday said the network stands by its reporting. It seems that the Trump administration is aghast at the criticism it is facing but refuses to acknowledge that the strait is closed right now with all oil exports from the region halted except for Iran’s. Attacking the media won’t change the facts on the ground or in the water.

A prison guard on duty during Jeffrey Epstein’s death has been asked to testify to the House Oversight Committee.

Tova Noel is scheduled to appear for a transcribed interview on March 26, as part of the panel’s ongoing investigation into the alleged sex trafficker.

Noel and Michael Thomas were the two federal prison guards on duty at the Metropolitan Correctional Facility in New York when Epstein was found dead in August 2019. They were previously charged with falsifying reports to conceal their failure to perform adequate checks on the alleged sex trafficker. Those charges were dismissed in 2022.

Noel’s summons could fan the flames of conspiracy theories that Epstein did not kill himself in his jail cell.

The Oversight Committee has heard closed-door testimony on Epstein from prominent people, including Bill and Hillary Clinton. The committee has also subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi for a deposition on her handling of the Epstein investigation. If her track record of discussing Epstein is any indication, it won’t go well.

The president is leveraging his position as commander in chief for another moneymaking scheme.

An eyebrow-raising fundraising email was circulated Thursday by a Trump-affiliated super PAC, promising supporters a “National Security Briefing Membership” in exchange for their cash.

It was sent by the fundraising subsidiary of Donald Trump’s primary leadership PAC, Never Surrender, which emerged from the ashes of his 2024 campaign committee. The note, nonetheless, is phrased as though it were written by Trump himself, and links out to Trump’s merchandising website.

The email offered access to “private national security briefings” and “unfiltered updates on the threats facing America.”

“These final spots are reserved for my strongest supporters (YOU’RE ONE OF THEM!). This is no ordinary membership,” the message reads. “As a National Security Briefing Member, you’ll receive my private national security briefings, unfiltered updates on the threats facing America. The straight truth on border invasions, foreign adversaries, deep state sabotage, and every danger the fake news hides.

“You’ll get the inside scoop DIRECT from me, President Trump, the leader who’s rebuilt the greatest military in history and put America First like no one else,” it continued.

The bizarre and unprecedented offer comes as formal components of the Trump administration tamper with press access to official briefings regarding the Iran war, choking the flow of information to the public.

Yet it’s far from the first time that Trump has attempted to use his power and political prestige to milk money from his base. Trump’s long list of election-year hustles included launching a remarkably ugly sneaker and a limited-edition, $60 God Bless the USA Bible co-promoted by “God Bless the USA” singer Lee Greenwood, which was ultimately forced on Oklahoma public schools by its MAGA superintendent.

Trump also took the parent company of his social media platform Truth Social public and stamped his name on a new cryptocurrency platform headed by his two sons, Eric and Don Jr., which even the president’s allies criticized as a “huge mistake.”

The grift has continued into his presidency. This week, Trump’s meme coin advertised an opportunity for investors to actually meet him in person—though the billed April 25 gathering at Mar-a-Lago is not actually on the president’s schedule, according to a White House official who spoke with Politico. Instead, Trump is slated to attend the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner for the first time.

Jay Clayton, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the District of Southern New York, has been tasked with investigating “people and institutions” tied to Jeffrey Esptein—but he himself has financial ties to the very Wall Street banks and firms under scrutiny, The Lever reported Thursday. 

Clayton holds between $1.5 million and $6 million worth of Apollo Global Management stock, according to public financial disclosures. He previously served as the group’s board chairman from 2021 until his Justice Department appointment in 2025. 

Leon Black, the billionaire former CEO of Apollo Global Management, was ousted from his role in 2021 after an internal review discovered he’d made $150 million in payments to Epstein for financial advice between 2012 and 2017. Black was later accused of raping a 16-year-old at Epstein’s mansion. He was ordered Thursday to be deposed as part of a lawsuit alleging Bank of America profited from Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking. 

Clayton also holds between between $15,000 and $50,000 in JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America stock, as well as between $1,000 and $15,000 in Bank of New York Mellon and Citigroup stock—where Congress alleges $1.5 billion in “suspicious financial transactions tied to sex trafficking crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein” and his co-conspirators once flowed. 

Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden previously published a report finding that executives at JPMorgan Chase waited to disclose Epstein’s suspicious transactions to regulators in order “to continue working with Epstein,” even after he was terminated as a client over money laundering concerns. Citing newly unsealed emails, the report indicated this was done because of Epstein’s influence over Black. Wyden also pressed the Treasury Department to probe Citibank for “suspicious activities” related to Epstein. 

Clayton was also tasked with spearheading the work of redacting victims’ identifying information from the trove of documents published by the Department of Justice—an entirely separate debacle that has seen images of public officials redacted while publishing 40 nude pictures of women (possibly underage), among a plethora of other errors.  

“Jay Clayton has a very personal interest in seeing the Epstein story as a cabined-off story involving a mysterious ‘who could have ever known it’ villain, rather than the story of interconnected immoral elites it appears to be to impartial people,” said Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, a government watchdog.

“That’s a really paralyzing bias to bring to the role of prosecutor,” Hauser said. “We should want professional skeptics to serve our prosecutors, not the credulous.”

European leaders are incensed after President Trump temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian oil to remedy oil costs after his war on Iran sent prices per barrel skyrocketing.

“We think that’s wrong,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said. “There is currently a price problem, but not a supply problem. And in that regard, I would like to know what other factors led the U.S. government to make this decision.… We want to ensure that Russia does not exploit the war in Iran to weaken Ukraine.… Nor will we allow Moscow to test NATO on its eastern flank and up here in the north.”

“In no case should an increase in the price of oil lead us to change our position with regard to Russia,” said French President Emmanuel Macron. “That is the position of the G7, and of course that of France and Europe.”

Many see Trump’s decision as another example of his extreme deference to Russian President Vladimir Putin, allowing Russia to profit when oil gets pricey while claiming to want to end its invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the move “not very logical.”

“The lifting of sanctions means that [Russia] will receive more money and there will be more drone attacks” in the Middle East, Zelenskiy said. “Russia will get money for its war machine, and there are a lot of drones that are built on Russian soil to destabilize the Middle East.… Russia is receiving new resources because of the destabilization. Ukraine must receive what has been promised.”

U.S. economic growth at the end of 2025 was half as strong as previously estimated.

Between October and December, America’s gross domestic product grew just 0.7 percent, revised down from 1.4 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Friday. 

This new number represented downward revisions in exports, consumer spending, government spending, and investment. The biggest revision was in exports, which dropped to -3.3 from the initial estimate of -0.9 percent. The biggest contributing factor to the fourth-quarter economic slowdown was the government shutdown.  

On the whole, real GDP increased 2.1 percent in 2025, which is still considered normal. If GDP growth is beneath 2 percent annually, that can typically be considered a recession. 

Meanwhile, core personal consumption expenditure, or PCE, inflation rose 3.1 percent on a 12-month basis. (That doesn’t include volatile food and energy costs.) Orders for durable goods did not see an expected increase of 1.3 percent, rising only 0.4 percent.

This significantly weaker economic growth has set the stage for Donald Trump’s increasingly expensive war in Iran. The president’s illegal military campaign there has triggered disruptions in global trade and sent prices at the gas pump surging. 

“The big downward revision in GDP is a gut check going into this energy crunch, increasing the risk of stagflation,” David Russell, global head of market strategy at TradeStation, wrote in an analyst note Friday. “The soft January durable goods data also suggests the economy entered this crisis weaker than hoped. This creates challenges for investors with PCE inflation still running well above the Fed’s target.”

Consumer spending remained relatively stable amid the backdrop of a labor market that has only gotten worse. In Q4, the U.S. job market shed 116,00 jobs—only slightly more than the 92,000 jobs it lost in February alone. 

Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon is once again cracking down on the journalists who cover it.

The Atlantic’s Nancy Youssef disclosed Friday that she had been barred from the day’s press briefing, along with a cadre of photographers. The revelation came days after Hegseth’s aides reportedly expressed their dissatisfaction with photographs that had been taken of the secretary since the war with Iran began.

“I, along with print photographers, have been denied entry to cover today’s Pentagon briefing,” Youssef wrote on X. “All other media were allowed in.”

Photographers were also barred from the March 4 and March 10 briefings. Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson claimed the sudden ban was an attempt to use the room “effectively,” adding that journalists could instead use photographs released by the Defense Department’s own staff.

It was not clear if the ban was permanent, or specifically related to the Iran war briefings.

It’s possible that Youssef was singled out alongside the photographers because she reported on Hegseth’s aides’ reaction to his comment about dead U.S. troops at the start of the war. During a press briefing on March 4, Hegseth claimed that the press was only reporting on the deaths of American soldiers in order to “make the president look bad.”

Youssef, who was present for the briefing, later told her colleague that Hegseth’s comment “sent a stunned silence through the briefing room.” Some members of Hegseth’s staff appeared to flinch at what he was saying, she said, while others ducked their heads.

Youssef said that one person quietly but audibly remarked: “That was one of the most insulting things I have ever heard.”

Hegseth—a former Fox News anchor—has had nothing short of a contentious relationship with the press since he was tapped to run the Pentagon.

Late last year, the defense secretary crafted new rules that required credentialed Pentagon reporters to pledge that they would not report on anything from the department that had not been approved for official release. The new policy, announced in October, forced journalists to choose between reporting government-sponsored propaganda or having their press credentials revoked.

Dozens of journalists walked away from their desks at the Pentagon as a result, refusing to capitulate to Hegseth’s new standard. In turn, Pentagon officials offered those newly vacated spots to conservative outlets ideologically aligned with the Trump administration, including One America News, The Federalist, and LindellTV, a new outlet formed by Mike Lindell, the My Pillow CEO who practically bankrupted himself by broadcasting conspiracies about the 2020 presidential election.

The New York Times sued the department over the restrictions in December, claiming that they “violate the Constitution’s guarantees of due process, freedom of speech and freedom of the press.” In court, Times attorney Theodore Boutrous argued that the public was being “deprived of vital war-based information” in the process.