DRUG WAR:  US forces destroyed a 10^th suspected drug boat yesterday in international waters off the Caribbean, killing six people. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the boat was “operated by” Tren de Aragua, one of the Latin American criminal groups that the administration has designated as a terrorist organization.

  Following announcement of the latest boat destruction, the Pentagon revealed that more warships including an aircraft carrier are being sent to waters off Latin America in an effort to “bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States.”

  The Defense Department has not provided evidence that any of these destroyed boats were carrying drugs, but DOD video in some cases has shown parcels floating in the water after the strike, very much the way drugs are packaged.

  The issue is the legality of killing these people. And in one odd occurrence the DOD returned two survivors to their home country rather than treat them as criminal suspects or prisoners of war. The question is whether if they are targets for killing, why are they not held as prisoners?

FOR SALE: The Pentagon is accepting a private donation of $130 million to help pay 1.3 million active duty troops going unpaid during the government shutdown, the Defense Department announced, likely in violation of the law prohibiting federal agencies from spending money in excess of congressional appropriations or from accepting voluntary services. President Trump called the anonymous donor a “patriot” and friend.

  The donation is a token. Each member of the military would get about $100, but the important thing is that Trump, like taking private donations for his ballroom, is putting the government up for sale.

THE EAST WING: Here is a list of donors to Donald Trump’s fund for building his ballroom. Many have business with the government.

Altria Group 

Amazon

Apple 

Booz Allen Hamilton 

Caterpillar 

Coinbase

Comcast

Hard Rock International

Google

HP 

Lockheed Martin 

Meta 

Micron Technology 

Microsoft 

NextEra Energy 

Palantir Technologies 

Ripple

Reynolds American 

T-Mobile 

Tether

Union Pacific Railroad

J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul

Adelson Family Foundation

Stefan E. Brodie

Betty Wold Johnson Foundation

Charles and Marissa Cascarilla

Edward and Shari Glazer

Harold Hamm

Benjamin Leon Jr.

The Lutnick Family

The Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation

Stephen A. Schwarzman

Konstantin Sokolov

Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher

Paolo Tiramani

Cameron Winklevoss

Tyler Winklevoss

THE REGIME:

— Former presidential adviser Steve Bannon, now a pro-Trump podcaster convicted of fraud, told The Economist that there is a plan for Donald Trump to skirt the 22^nd Amendment ban on running for a third term which says that “no person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice,” regardless of whether the terms are consecutive. 

  “Trump is going to be president in ’28, and people ought to just get accommodated with that,” Bannon said. “At the appropriate time, we’ll lay out what the plan is,” Bannon said without giving further details. “But there is a plan.” He said that Trump is an “instrument of divine will.”

— About 42 million Americans are just over a week away from losing their  federal food assistance because of the government shutdown. About 1 in 8 US residents receive an average of $187 a month through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. 

— New York Attorney General Letitia James pleaded not guilty yesterday to a criminal indictment ordered up by President Trump.

  She’s accused of mortgage fraud in telling a lender that a house in Virginia would be a second home while instead renting it out, saving money on her mortgage rate.

  James’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said that he plans to challenge the case as vindictive and selective, and that the indictment failed to properly lay out the crimes with which she is charged. 

  James said the case is “nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.”

— President Trump yesterday reversed environmental regulations giving copper smelters a two-year exemption to complying with stricter emissions standards imposed by the Biden administration. Copper smelting emits hazardous pollutants including lead, mercury, benzene, arsenic, and dioxins

  Trump called copper essential to “the national security, economic strength and industrial resilience of the United States” and said the regulation imposed “severe burdens on the few remaining domestic copper smelters.” 

— The Justice Department said yesterday that it will monitor polling stations in six counties in California and New Jersey ahead of the Nov. 4 general election, to ensure transparency and ballot security at the polls. They say it’s “routine.”

THE SPIN RACK:  The Toronto Blue Jays routed the Los Angeles Dodgers 11-4 last night in Toronto in the opener of the World Series. Toronto came from 2-0 behind and Addison Barger swatted the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history. Game two is tonight. — A bill before the Massachusetts legislature would limit the number of self-checkout kiosks in grocery stores. Please move your item to the bagging area.

BELOW THE FOLD: NPR looked into why people were showing up at No Kings and immigration protests wearing inflatable costumes like poodles, pandas, chickens, and frogs … a lot of frogs. One man told the outlet, “One of the things fascists can’t handle is humor.”

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