POWER PLAY — If you’ve spent any time on the more rabidly liberal or anti-Trump corners of the internet lately, you’ve probably seen variations of the same theory bouncing around your social media feed: If Trump wins in November, JD Vance and his conservative allies in Silicon Valley will use the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office and seize power for themselves. That plot, so the theory goes, is the reason that right-leaning tech elites like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk backed Vance for the vice presidential slot in the first place — they’re all in cahoots to depose Trump and launch an intra-conservative coup designed to give power to Vance and his oligarchic allies. For the most part, this theory has been pushed — without evidence — by anonymous, left-leaning social media accounts who openly support Harris and oppose Trump, a cohort that some commentators have variously derisively called “Blue MAGA” or “BlueAnon” due to its predilection for Q-Anon style conspiratorialism. But late last week week, the theory entered the political mainstream thanks to a new ad from the conservative anti-Trump group, the Lincoln Project. The ad, which has wracked up almost 400,000 views on YouTube, suggests a subtle shift in the way that anti-Trump forces are attacking Vance, but it also also illustrates the role that left-coded misinformation is factoring in those attacks. That makes it part of a broader wave of left-coded misinformation that has flared up online ahead of the election — a growing problem for Democrats as they contend with the deluge of misinformation that is sweeping the right. The 90-second ad, titled “Brutus,” is meant to invoke the infamous betrayal of the Roman dictator Julius Caesar by his ally Brutus, but it relies on the same unfounded theory that’s gone viral on the fringy corners of the anti-Trump internet. “If you win, JD will come for you,” an female voiceover intones in the ad, addressing Trump in the ominous tone of a horror movie narrator. “JD’s plot to invoke the 25th Amendment is already underway … and with Democrats in the majority, no one will stop him.” To be clear, no credible evidence exists to support this theory, and a spokesperson for the Lincoln Project did not provide any evidence to support the ad’s claim in response to a request from Nightly, saying, “Many people are saying this could happen, so we thought someone should warn Trump.” In a statement to Nightly, a spokesperson for the Vance campaign wrote, “This ad is pure, unadulterated bullshit. It should come as no surprise that the creepy pedophile ring otherwise known as the Lincoln Project is hysterically inventing fantasies about Donald Trump’s demise.” But the new ad and the proliferation of the unfounded theory online serve as evidence of a shift in the way that anti-Trump forces are targeting Vance — and the ways outright conspiracy theories are factoring into those efforts. In the early stages of Vance’s campaign, Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans embraced the attack — coined by Democratic vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz — that Vance was “weird,” highlighting the ways that his idiosyncratic brand of hardline (and extremely online) conservatism was proving offputing to voters. But after this week’s vice presidential debate, in which Vance struck a more personable, policy-oriented and even conciliatory tone, anti-Trump groups appear to be changing tack, arguing that Vance’s competence makes him a more effective — and therefore more dangerous — alternative to Trump. As the Lincoln Project ad’s narrator put it, “Republicans want someone younger, smarter, someone stable, a leader who will executive Project 2025” — the Heritage Foundation’s much-discussed policy blueprint for a second Trump administration — “without your problems.” The strategy behind the ad is clear enough: Given Trump’s concerns about the loyalty of his appointees and advisors during his term in office, the Lincoln Project is clearly aiming to get under Trump’s skin by suggesting that Vance will “stab [Trump] in the back,” a la Brutus and Caesar. Speculation about Vance’s plans to use the 25th Amendment have been fueled by Trump’s refusal to release his medical records, prompting some to speculate online that he’s hiding a medical condition. But the problem is that the claim is simply not true. Even putting aside the limitations of the analogy — according to popular historical accounts, Brutus assassinated Caesar at least in part because he saw him as a threat to the Roman Republic, not because he thought he could be a more effective dictator — the central claim behind the ad is has not been substantiated by the Lincoln Project or any independent sources. That makes it another example of the sort of conspiratorial thinking that has spread across left-leaning internet spaces in recent months. In the aftermath of President Joe Biden’s calamitous debate performance in late June, for instance, Biden-friendly activists and influencers took to social media to blame Biden’s stumbles on a secret, media-driven plot to oust him. A similar wave of speculation crested after the first attempted assassination of Trump in July, when some anti-Trump accounts push the unsubstantiated claim that the shooting was a false flag operation designed to boost support for Trump. Neither Harris nor other major Democrats leaders have embraced these claims — a stark contrast to Trump, who regularly repeats conspiratorial claims that originate online. The irony, of course, is that Vance has flirted with openly anti-democratic ideas that could theoretically justify an actual coup. On multiple occasions — including during Tuesday’s debate — Vance has refused to acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election, and he has said he would not have certified the 2020 election if he had been vice president. In other settings, he has argued that a second-term Trump should openly defy a Supreme Court ruling preventing him from firing civil servants — a claim which led one journalist to describe Vance’s plan as “a description, essentially, of a coup.” Vance has denied that his position would create a constitutional crisis, but at least he acknowledges that he holds that position. The same cannot be said for the emerging allegations of a Silicon-Valley orchestrated coup against Trump. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at iward@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @ianwardreports.
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— Georgia Supreme Court halts ruling striking down state’s near-ban on abortions as the state appeals: The Georgia Supreme Court today halted a ruling striking down the state’s near-ban on abortions while it considers the state’s appeal. The high court’s order came a week after a judge found that Georgia unconstitutionally prohibits abortions beyond about six weeks of pregnancy, often before women realize they’re pregnant. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled Sept. 30 that privacy rights under Georgia’s state constitution include the right to make personal healthcare decisions. — Milton raises stakes for Congress to pass more disaster aid: The Category 5 hurricane barreling toward Florida will put new pressure on Congress to reconvene to refill dwindling disaster relief accounts. Less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene slammed into Florida and ravaged communities across the Southeast, a new storm — Hurricane Milton — is threatening to finish off a brutal one-two punch that will further strain the federal government’s disaster coffers. More than two dozen lawmakers — many of them from Florida, North Carolina, Texas and other states hit by major storms this year — have called for Congress to return from its preelection recess to approve a disaster aid supplemental. Congressional leaders have largely demurred, wanting to wait for official cost estimates. — Supreme Court denies Uber, Lyft appeal of California labor lawsuits: The Supreme Court today declined to weigh in on an appeal brought by Uber and Lyft against lawsuits filed by California officials over claims the company misclassified its workers. The justices denied the ride-hailing giants’ petition without offering comments on the decision. Uber and Lyft argued that lawsuits filed in 2020 by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Labor Commissioner Lilia Garcia-Brower seeking back payments for withheld minimum wage, overtime and other benefits are invalid because the workers in question signed arbitration agreements with the companies.
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| ‘BAD GENES’ — Former President Donald Trump used increasingly harsh rhetoric to attack immigrants, suggesting today during an interview that immigrants commit horrendous crimes because “it’s in their genes.” “How about allowing people to come to an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers, many of them murdered far more than one person, and they’re now happily living in the United States. You know now a murder, I believe this, it’s in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now,” he told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. TECH ON TRAIL — Tech billionaire Elon Musk will ramp up his personal efforts to elect Donald Trump in the remaining weeks of the election — including making visits to Pennsylvania to campaign for the former president. Musk intends to appear in the swing state in the four weeks leading up to Nov. 5, according to a person who has spoken with his team and was granted anonymity to speak freely because they weren’t authorized to do so. He is expected to make the stops with the backing of America PAC, a pro-Trump super PAC he formed. He may make other appearances in the state independent of his super PAC — as he did on Sunday evening, when he showed up to the Pittsburgh Steelers game wearing a MAGA hat and was greeted by Steelers owner Art Rooney II, among others. CAN’T PREP FOR THIS — The Category 4 hurricane that ripped through the eastern seaboard is scrambling election preparations in some of the country’s top battlegrounds — adding to the troubles of administering the vote amid conspiracy theories and toxic partisan divides. The swing states of Georgia and North Carolina were among the most heavily affected by Hurricane Helene. The upturning of everyday life has also introduced unanticipated disruptions into the nuts-and-bolts of running a high-stakes presidential election. And election officials are racing to ensure storm-battered residents can safely cast their votes over the next month. Counties affected by the storm are now revisiting some of the most basic elements of their Election Day plans at an especially busy moment in the electoral calendar, with fast-approaching deadlines for voter registration and the printing and delivery of mail ballots, and the onset of early voting. That includes how to process absentee ballots for displaced voters who cannot yet return home and vetting whether polling locations battered by the storm will be safe to receive voters as soon as early polling locations open this month.
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ROUNDING THE BEND — The war in Gaza is set to wrap up during the coming year and a new governing authority will be put in place to run the conflict-ravaged enclave, Israel’s ambassador to the European Union told POLITICO. Haim Regev said the Israel Defense Forces had completed most of their military objectives in Gaza, weakening Palestinian militant group Hamas to the point where it could no longer fight as an organized structure, but now behaved like a guerrilla force. “Before the war, Hamas was an army with a chain of command, with battalions … Today this military threat does not exist anymore,” he said in a phone interview a day before the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. “We have dismantled most of the battalions … I think this will be the year when we see a new governing structure in Gaza. “It’s a matter of time. It will happen when all the hostages are released,” he added. Israeli authorities say they don’t want to remain in control of the Gaza Strip. In a recent interview, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair — who also served as a Middle East peace envoy — said that a third force, neither Israeli nor Palestinian, should help to govern Gaza once fighting ends.
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