Donors to Transportation Secretary’s Son-in-Law See Huge Boosts

Republican donors with no ties to Wisconsin are pouring their money into a random House candidate there—who happens to be Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s son-in-law. 

Michael Alfonso, a 26-year-old running for Wisconsin’s 7th district, has collected money from at least 25 transportation executives, industry lobbyists, and corporate PACS, The Bulwark reported Friday. So far, his campaign has managed to raise $1.3 million, despite the fact that Alfonso has never held public office. If elected, he would be the youngest person in Congress. 

These donors aren’t mad Alfonso-heads—they’re transportation industry figures who appear to be seeking federal contracts and favors. 

For example, David Parker, the chairman and CEO of the trucking company Covenant Logistics, and his wife paid a whopping $10,000 to Alfonso’s campaign, despite having no connection to Wisconsin. Weeks later, Duffy’s department renewed Covenant’s exemption from a federal driver supervision requirement for another five years. 

When questioned about the donation, a spokesperson for Parker declined to comment. But, separately, he’s gushed over the “great things” Duffy’s doing at the DOT. 

The Bulwark identified multiple situations in which transportation companies and industry figures donated to Alfonso—and either won big federal contracts or had vested interest in staying on Duffy’s good side. 

Air Space Intelligence, an AI-powered air-traffic software start-up, won a $875 million contract with the Federal Aviation Administration just months after its corporate PAC donated to Alfonso. Peter Cipriano (who was a senior adviser to Donald Trump’s DOT during his first term) was tapped to lead the multibillion-dollar redevelopment of the New York City transportation hub Penn Station two months after donating $2,602.54 to Alfonso’s campaign. Sharad Tak, the CEO of ST LNG, a company seeking a port license of DOT, and his wife donated a combined $7,500 to Alfonso’s campaign. In May, Fairwood Peninsula Energy, another LNG exporter, donated $125,000 to Northwoods Future PAC, a super PAC supporting Alfonso.

Duffy has also poured $1 million from his dormant campaign committee toward Alfonso’s campaign.  

Staff in the Department of Homeland Security circulated an internal email last year listing states and counties that offer election materials in languages other than English, raising questions about the Trump administration’s plans for the midterm elections and beyond.

NPR obtained the email thanks to a Democratic National Committee lawsuit over a public records request. The 78-page list of states and counties was attached to a Department of Justice criminal checklist on requirements for prosecuting election crimes.

The content of the email is worrying, as it could be a preview of the states and precincts the Trump administration will be monitoring, or worse, where it will be intimidating voters and reducing turnout. Trump and other Republicans have long railed against noncitizen voting, even though the number of cases is microscopically low.

The document doesn’t mention any plans for law enforcement at voting locations, and the email is extensively redacted, so it’s unknown why the list was included. The DHS said that the email came from a “subordinate sharing initial thoughts and opinions with leadership,” in a court filing defending the redactions. Top DHS officials were on the email chain, including Rob Law, the undersecretary for strategy, policy and plans, and Heather Honey, an election conspiracy theorist assigned to monitor elections.

When NPR reached out to DHS about the document, the agency issued a statement saying that people who vote illegally shouldn’t be able to “use a purported lack of knowledge” of English to evade charges. The Voting Rights Act requires election officials to provide materials in another language if at least 5 percent of voting-age citizens consider it their primary language.

Trump administration officials have not been forthright about whether they will deploy federal law enforcement officers to the polls, or whether that would be personnel from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI, or another agency. Earlier this week, FBI Director Kash Patel wouldn’t rule out sending the bureau’s agents to voting locations in November, when asked by Democratic senators.

Last week, the city of Denver along with multiple Latino civil rights groups sued the Trump administration and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to prevent ICE agents from serving immigration warrants at the polls.

“The right to vote, and to do so without fear of intimidation, is fundamental to our democracy and to being an American,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said in a press release. “Stationing ICE agents near polling places is only meant to scare people and suppress votes. We’ll fight tooth and nail to prevent it.”

So far, the Trump administration has not announced any concrete plans for what it plans to do with federal agents for the midterms in November. But judging by the president’s exhortations to his supporters to “cheat like hell,” anything is possible.

The Federal Communications Commission has greenlit Paramount’s petition to allow foreign investors to own at least 49.5 percent of its equity—should the media behemoth successfully acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.

The titanic buyout is backed by three sovereign wealth funds tied to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi. The FCC acknowledged the national security concerns behind the foreign investment, noting in its decision that the Gulf State wealth funds would not have voting stock.

“We are persuaded by Paramount’s argument that the Foreign Investors therefore will not be able to wield any influence, let alone control, over decisions involving the Licensees,” the commission’s 20-page decision read.

Nonetheless, the commission also carved out allowances for foreign investors to own all of the company’s stock, writing that “it is in the public interest to permit up to 100 percent indirect foreign equity interest of Paramount.”

The combined permitted equity sums include 51.2 percent for four UAE investors, 21.2 percent for two Qatari investors, and 15.1 percent for a singular Saudi investor. Altogether, that’s 87.5 percent of the joint entity.

The FCC’s observed national security concerns did not, however, extend to the three nations’ authoritarian rule, or the consequences of speaking freely under their control.

The prospect of the multibillion-dollar deal was apparently delicious enough for U.S. officials to forget about the late Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was assassinated by the Saudi government in 2018 for daring to question the kingdom’s authoritarian rule and its war in Yemen, and for advocating for democracy in the Middle East.

A Paramount spokesperson said in a statement that the company appreciated the FCC’s “careful review,” and specified that the “Ellison family and RedBird [Capital Partners] will collectively hold the largest equity stake in the combined company and 100 percent of the voting shares, with no other equity participant having any governance rights.

“At a time when the media industry faces unprecedented competitive pressure from dominant big tech companies, a combined Paramount-WBD will have the scale and resources necessary to compete, invest, innovate, and deliver premium content to audiences worldwide,” the spokesperson added.

Paramount Skydance came to an agreement to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery earlier this year when it undermined a previous deal between Warner Bros. and Netflix by offering an all-cash bid to buy the company with $31 per share.

But the $110 billion transaction hit a snag in July when a federal judge temporarily blocked the agreement from moving forward, citing antitrust concerns as the two corporations stand to dominate America’s media landscape.

If approved, the merger would fuse two gargantuan film studios, two streaming platforms, and two news organizations under the helm of David Ellison, the millennial son of tech billionaire Larry Ellison, who’s a close friend of President Donald Trump.

The ongoing pause has put Paramount executives in a bind: The company placed a bet against time, promising Warner Bros. shareholders 25 cents a share each quarter if the deal isn’t wrapped by September 30. That could potentially penalize Paramount by more than $600 million per quarter.

President Trump took some time from his Thursday evening Rose Garden speech to revel in just how much “crazy” power he has.

The president addressed a crowd of American hunters and outdoorsmen, which included billionaire Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris.

“That means you can sell a lot of fishing rods, Johnny. You’re going to sell a lot of rods. I could have made it so you couldn’t sell,” Trump said. “You couldn’t sell anything. I could have banned fishing,” Trump said, referring to his presidential powers.

“I’ll tell you what. The power of this office is crazy. I could have banned fishing and driven Johnny right the hell out of business. OK. I think I’m going to do that. Just maybe just a quick order, just for a day or two, till he calls me and he says, ‘Please, President, please, you’re putting me out of business, sir.’”

After fantasizing about a billionaire begging him for help, the president went on to make his usual ramblings about his beautification efforts, which most recently have resulted in a fight over the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.

His fishing comment was met with disdain and confusion online.

“The Constitution continues to offer impeachment and removal as an option,” The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf wrote.

Others saw it as a chance for Alaska’s Democrat Senate nominee and fisherwoman Mary Peltula to take advantage of yet another Trump gaffe, as “I could have banned fishing” seemed tailor-made for an attack ad with Trump’s face all over it.

“That sound you just heard was @Mary Peltola winning her Senate race,” reporter Matthew Chapman wrote.

President Donald Trump admitted that he had no clue what was in his own executive order.

During a dinner in the White House Rose Garden Thursday, Trump announced an executive order on “Reinvigorating America’s Hunting Heritage” to a group of 100 outdoorsmen and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. The order protected the hunters’ right to use lead ammunition, among other things, something Trump apparently only learned about as he was reading his remarks.

“And this order also protects the use of affordable, traditional lea—well, this is pretty good, is that, I never knew this was a problem Doug, you’re gonna have to educate me, but you put it in—lead ammunition. Is ammunition—lead ammunition was a problem, huh?” Trump said.

“Is it better than other ammunition, I assume? It’s uh, pretty good, I don’t know what the hell that means, but I know one thing: You wanted it. You wanted it and I’m here for you!” Trump said. “So the order protects the use of affordable, traditional lead ammunition, that sounds good to me!”

This little gaffe wasn’t the only rough moment in the president’s meandering speech. Trump revisited one of his classic incoherent rants about being electrocuted in an electric boat next to some sharks, joked about banning fishing altogether because “the power of this office is crazy,” and rambled about how popular he is with duck hunters and boaters.

Clearly, Trump has no idea what was in the executive order he signed. This suggests that any one of the Cabinet members or White House staff could get the president to make policy decrees without him ever noticing.

While Burgum can sneakily help his hunting buddies skirt environmental concerns about their ammunition, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth could quietly make sweeping changes to the military, or resident White House ghoul Stephen Miller could secretly make directives targeting immigrants. All they have to do is hide the move in an executive order, and Trump might be none the wiser!