Who the Hell Is Paying for Republicans’ Midterm “Trump-a-Palooza”?

The first ever Republican midterm convention is being fueled by a dark money web with a MAGA super PAC at its center.

The unprecedented gathering will take place on September 9 and 10 in Dallas. But the private group organizing the conference, a nonprofit known as the Dallas 2026 Host Committee, has not yet disclosed any of its donors (federally mandated filings that would offer such transparency still aren’t due for several months). The only insight available as to who’s behind the multimillion-dollar operation stems from the nonprofit’s address.

An OpenSecrets investigation published Tuesday found that the Dallas 2026 Host Committee shares an address with Make America Great Again Inc., a super PAC formed in 2022 to back Donald Trump and his endorsed candidates.

Further still, the treasurer of MAGA Inc.—Charles Gantt—is also the listed custodian of the convention’s nonprofit, according to an FEC filing and an IRS letter that tied Gantt to the self-advertised “nonpartisan” nonprofit.

Last month, the Dallas 2026 Host Committee told The Dallas Morning News that it raised $45 million in just 27 days from various independent and corporate contributions. That sum didn’t include the revenue expected from sales for the ticketed event, which requires even invited House members to pay a minimum of $25,000 to walk in the door with a guest.

The committee did not elaborate on who’s been filling its coffers.

The group’s nonprofit status legally prohibits it from sponsoring political candidates or aiding elections. Instead, organization leadership told the newspaper that the money it obtained would go toward aiding Dallas’s local economy and covering government costs.

“This Dallas Host Committee, if it stuck to just promoting Dallas, making Dallas look good, that would be permissible—as long as it’s not crossing that line to making contributions to the RNC or the state party,” Shanna Ports, senior legal counsel for campaign finance at Campaign Legal Center, told OpenSecrets. “Then, it would be operating within the realm of campaign finance laws and tax status.”

But that doesn’t seem to be the primary motivator for the GOP conference. Trump and Vice President JD Vance are both expected to deliver speeches to the conservative assembly, which has been strung together at the eleventh hour to give Republicans a boost ahead of a contentious midterm cycle.

President Donald Trump appeared to short-circuit Wednesday during a meeting with travel executives in the Oval Office.

“On 11 separate days, more than three million travelers flowed through the American flies, they, they, uh … American skies were loaded up with planes,” Trump, 80, said while seated at the Resolute Desk.

It’s clear that Trump meant to say “American skies,” but that his brain got in the way. The meeting was ostensibly supposed to be a chance for the president to brag about high levels of tourism in the U.S. over the summer, but not only did Trump fumble his lines, Americans have actually spent a lot less money on vacations these past few months. Flights and road trips have also declined compared to last year. Foreign tourism into the U.S. has also dropped sharply since Trump resumed office.

Trump’s ongoing cognitive decline seems to be getting worse each day. He’s fallen asleep dozens of times throughout his second term as president, frequently slurred his speech, and last month seemed to forget how to spell the word “dumb” at a speech in Las Vegas with cameras rolling. Just last week, the president fell asleep during a health care announcement at the White House.

Meanwhile, Trump’s decisions are increasingly erratic, from abruptly signing an executive order to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America” to his continued poor handling of the ill-advised war with Iran. Hours before his meeting Wednesday, Trump proposed renaming the Strait of Hormuz after himself. All of this clearly points to a man who is not well, yet has just over two more years of being president left.

President Donald Trump wants to rename the Strait of Hormuz, which the U.S. doesn’t control, after himself.

“Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT??? Like America itself, it would be ‘hotter’ than ever before! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP,” the president posted on Truth Social Wednesday morning.

The move wouldn’t have any support beyond his fans, and it is a terrible idea due to Iran currently being able to throttle maritime traffic through the crucial narrow waterway. Trump’s executive order to change the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” last week was unpopular with Canadians and many Americans, although Google and Apple decided to bow to Trump’s demand by renaming the lake on their map services.

Trump has sought to rename everything from buildings to aircraft carriers after himself in his second term as president, and even has his sights on renaming New York’s Penn Station. Florida just renamed Palm Beach’s airport after him: it’s now officially the President Donald J. Trump International Airport, complete with the code DJT.

At a time when Trump claims to want a deal with Iran, changing the strait’s name would undoubtedly hurt the prospects for peace. It’s not likely to go over well with the other countries in the region, such as Oman and the United Arab Emirates. If Trump is serious, the move is sure to invite more comparisons between him and historical dictators who also sought to rename everything.

The Trump administration is dipping its toe back in reality television.

The Small Business Administration announced Tuesday that the agency’s Million Dollar Pitch Competition would be concluded with a “live finale event” in Washington D.C. on September 18.

Five small manufacturing companies from across the country are set to go head-to-head for cuts of a $1 million prize pool furnished by Clover Network Inc., a point-of-sale and payment-processing platform. Think Shark Tank but way more boring.

The program will be presided over by a panel of Trump sycophants and scam artists, including Nicki Minaj, the rapper-singer who took a hard-right turn when her vaccine skepticism hit the MAGA mainstream; Grant Cardone, a get-rich-quick influencer accused of misleading investors; and Joe Gebbia, the co-founder of Airbnb, who currently leads a group of DOGE goons running federal websites. The event will be hosted by actor Dean Cain, once Superman, now fanboy for the president.

This is the Trump administration’s second foray into reality television, after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy debuted his flop travel show last month. It’s not yet clear where the SBA’s show will “air,” but if Duffy’s project was any indication, it will be quietly dumped on YouTube and immediately forgotten.

President Donald Trump’s latest grift appears to be selling $1 coins for more than $2 apiece.

Beginning at noon Wednesday, the U.S. Mint is selling $1 commemorative gold coins emblazoned with Trump’s face on its website for the country’s 250th anniversary—for the low, low prices of $61 for 25 coins or 100 coins for $154.50. Interest from Trump supporters appears to be so high that an online waiting room was set up.

Among the minted coins are 250,000 coins pressed on July 4 that carry a “July 4” privy mark, according to a U.S. Mint press release. The coins feature Trump’s official White House portrait, a move that should be illegal under the Presidential $1 Coin Act, which states that no coin shall “bear the image of a living former or current President” until at least two years after their death.

The Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020 also states that living people can’t appear on the back of a coin, but the Trump administration claims that the act allows the president to create memorial coins celebrating America’s 250th anniversary.

The coins aren’t even made of gold but have a “gold-like finish,” according to the Treasury Department. That won’t matter to Trump supporters, who shell out their cash for anything that the president sells, from gaudy golden sneakers to Trump-branded Bibles made in China. He’s also sold unsightly watches and overpriced fragrances bearing his name.

Trump has made more than $2.2 billion since being sworn in as president last year. While most of that is from cryptocurrency, he’s still making a pretty penny on merchandise, and now he’s got the U.S. Mint hawking his likeness on actual currency. It seems that there’s nothing Trump won’t do to make a buck, ethics be damned.