Good morning! He did it again. Six years ago, Trump went viral for plopping Halloween candy on top of a Minion’s giant costumed head instead of in the bag. At a White House trick-or-treating event on Thursday, he did it again. This year’s victim was a kid dressed as, er, a lampshade or something?

In other news, Egypt opened its massive new national museum. Best of luck protecting it against the apparently amateur thieves who broke into the Louvre.

POLITICS

🗳️ What’s happening this Election Day?

Some people just have to be different. Gotta use that Android phone. Gotta hate onions. Gotta hold your elections in weird off-years.

Tomorrow is the first Tuesday* in November, and that means it's Election Day … at least in Virginia and New Jersey. By the time the dust settles, both states will have chosen new governors.

Virginia: Other than being the most populous state without a major pro sports franchise, it’s also the only one that forbids governors from running for reelection. Three offices are on the ballot tomorrow: governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general (AG). Virginia leans Democratic these days, but Republicans swept all three offices four years ago.

• Governor: Ex-Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D) is the favorite to win over Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears (R). Should Sears win the upset, though, she’ll be the nation’s first-ever black woman to serve as a state governor.

• Lt. Gov: State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D) is favored in a tight race over radio host John Reid (R), who almost got nuked by his own party a few months ago for a gay porn scandal (for the record, Reid himself is gay).

• AG: This is the hot one. Incumbent AG Jason Miyares (R) won the political lottery last month when news emerged that his opponent, Jay Jones (D), had wished death upon a political opponent and his children. Miyares is now a slight favorite.

New Jersey: Mostly just a collection of NYC and Philly suburbs masquerading as a state, New Jersey elects precisely one statewide official: the governor. The Garden State is strongly Democratic. No Republican presidential candidate has won it since 1988. But Republicans regularly win gubernatorial races here, and did so as recently as 2013.

• Our two candidates? U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D) and former state legislator Jack Ciattarelli (R). Ciattarelli is back after almost winning an upset four years ago.

The polls have Sherrill leading by 3%, and election betting sites have her as an 82% favorite.

The gist: Democrats are favored to win both gubernatorial races tomorrow. But neither is a done deal. That probably explains why Barack Obama spent his weekend campaigning in Virginia and New Jersey instead of ... doing whatever it is that a retired president does in his free time.

No matter who wins, one thing is certain: Everyone in politics is going to dig through the results in search of trends that could give a hint as to how Americans will vote in next year’s midterms.

Elsewhere in American politics, the redistricting fight continues:

1. Virginia’s Democratic legislature passed a plan to redraw the state’s congressional districts and pick up a few seats for Team D next year. But a legal fight is brewing, and the race for attorney general could be key.

2. Ohio’s Republican legislature redrew the state's map to give Team R the leg up in two extra congressional seats. The map is the result of a deal with Democrats: Go for two seats instead of three, and we won't challenge the plan.

3. California voters looked poised to amend their state’s constitution tomorrow. Prop 50 will dump the nonpartisan redistricting commission and allow the state’s Democratic legislature to redraw the congressional districts and (probably) knock five Republicans out of Congress.

*Technically speaking, it's the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

POLITICS

🏙️ New Yorkers go to the polls

If you wake up one day and find yourself mayor of New York, congratulations! You’re not a governor, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pretend. Unlike most mayors, the Big Apple’s top dawg gets an official residence in the form of Gracie Mansion, a humongous 1799 house on the Upper East Side.

The home of Wall Street, aging hipsters, and the fourth hour of the Today Show is electing a new mayor tomorrow. Let’s take a look.

The job: Sometimes referred to as the second hardest job in America (after the presidency), New York’s mayor is a strong executive. Unlike the figurehead-esque mayors in Sun Belt cities like OKC and Dallas, the mayor here actually runs the show.

• The winner is in charge of basically everything with one key exception: the MTA.

• The Metropolitan Transit Authority (aka: the subway) is controlled by the state.

The candidates: State legislator Zohran Mamdani (D) is a 34-year-old self-proclaimed socialist with a history of controversial comments. He won the Democratic primary on a strong message of making NYC more affordable.

• Disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) resigned in 2021 amid a sex scandal. He lost the Democratic primary to Mamdani earlier this year. Not one to take “no” for an answer, Cuomo is running in the general election as an independent.

• Radio host Curtis Sliwa (R) founded a subway safety group in the 1970s and has been riding that high ever since. He has no chance.

The situation: Some normie Democrats are uncomfortable with Mamdani’s more left-wing positions. That’s driven many of them to jump in with moderate New York Republicans and endorse Andrew Cuomo.

• Most powerful Democrats are supporting Mamdani. But U.S. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who represents NYC, only endorsed him last week. And it was half-hearted at best.

• Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, also a New Yorker, is actively avoiding the question.

Mamdani’s in the driver’s seat, but Cuomo has an outside shot at an upset win here. If Mamdani does win, progressives like AOC and Bernie Sanders will be thrilled. As will national Republicans, who have promised to use him in campaign ads in next year’s midterm elections.

GOVERNMENT

🌍️ President Trump on Saturday ordered the Department of Defense (DOD) to prepare for possible military action in Nigeria. He echoed ongoing claims of "mass slaughter" of Christians in the country. Trump warned Nigeria's government to "move fast" to fix the problem before the U.S. military comes in "guns-a-blazing" to wipe out the terrorists doing the killing. Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, denied that its Christians are persecuted. Leaders pointed out that Nigerian Muslims are also victims of terrorism, and said they'd welcome America’s help "as long as it recognizes our territorial integrity." Meanwhile, the DOD is busy restoring an old Naval base in Puerto Rico and amassing forces near Venezuela.

🚽 President Trump’s desire to leave a physical legacy at the White House isn’t slowing down. Earlier this year, he took some heat for paving over part of the Rose Garden. And controversy over his ongoing project to replace the East Wing with a giant ballroom isn’t going away anytime soon. His newest project, however, is less controversial. And less visible. On Friday, the president unveiled a renovation of the Lincoln Bedroom's adjoining bathroom. He slammed the older, 1950s renovation as "totally inappropriate" for Lincoln’s era. The new design is black-and-white marble with gold trim.

🤝 Trump’s big visit with his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, went off without a hitch. He even rated it as a 12 out of 10. Instead of continuing to decouple their economies, both sides strived for a "patch up" of one of the world's largest trading relationships. The U.S. lowered its tariffs on China. In exchange, China agreed to, among other things, buy more U.S. soybeans and free up its export controls of technology-critical rare earth minerals. That last point should help shore up America's supply of rare earths while last month’s deal with Australia unfolds.

TRIVIA

The British royals are in the news again. The scandal-tarred artist formerly known as Prince Andrew has been stripped of his dukedom, his right to be called “Prince,” and his royal residence. Now his older brother, King Charles III, is moving to twist the knife one final time and yank ole’ Andy’s honorary military titles.

Sure, he probably deserves it. But that won’t make Christmas dinner at the palace any less awkward. Thankfully for Andrew, he and Charles aren’t the only two children of the late Queen Elizabeth II. How many siblings does King Charles have, and what are their names?

Hint: Obviously, it’s at least two, and one is named Andrew.

SHUTDOWN

🔒️ The government shutdown is hours from breaking the record

Who doesn’t love to watch an old record get broken? Okay, maybe it’s different when we’re talking about the longest government shutdown in history.

We’re at Day 34 now. If Congress doesn’t figure this out by tomorrow, we’ll tie the record (set in 2019) for longest government shutdown ever at 35 days.

You might not notice the effects of the shutdown if you don’t work for (or with) the government. But go to the airport, and that might change. Instead of working without pay, air traffic controllers are calling in sick. And that means cancellations and delays nationwide.

• In the words of Transportation Secretary Sean Dufy, “We will delay, we will cancel, any kind of flight across the national airspace to make sure people are safe.”

• Why? “There is a level of risk that gets injected into the system when we have a controller that's doing two jobs instead of one.”

If you’re on food stamps, aka SNAP, it’s a different story. Payments didn’t go out on November 1 due to the shutdown. But that could change today. A federal judge ruled that the government has to break into its emergency $5 billion piggy bank to partially fund SNAP, which costs $8 billion per month.

• The administration has until noon today to respond with its plan to get payments out the door.

• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated on Sunday that payments could resume as soon as Wednesday.

As for Congress, the deadlock is still deadlocked with no end in sight.

Related: Trump is taking some heat for hosting a lavish, Gatsby-themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago hours before SNAP funding ran out over the weekend. The event was privately funded. But every trip he takes costs the government $3.4 million in security and travel (as of 2019).

BRIEFS

● Trump's use of a 1977 "there's an emergency!" law to levy his tariffs is up for debate on Wednesday at the Supreme Court. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is "optimistic" that the administration will win. If it doesn’t, Trump's entire trade agenda is at risk.

● President Trump's casual admission that he underwent an MRI scan and cognitive test last week has raised questions about his health. He didn't reveal a reason for the visit, but the White House recently said the president is in "excellent overall health."

● A mass stabbing attack on an English train near London injured nine people on Saturday. One is still fighting for his life. Police initially detained two suspects before releasing one. The other, a 32-year-old man, is in custody for attempted murder.

● South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace berated and cursed out law enforcement at the Charleston airport on Thursday for the mortal sin of … escorting her to her gate incorrectly. TBD on how this affects Mace’s 2026 gubernatorial campaign.

● The Department of Justice (DOJ) told Congress that President Trump's strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats at sea are not subject to limits on a president's military powers imposed by the 1973 War Powers Act because they don’t put U.S. troops in danger.

QUOTE

ANSWER

Queen Elizabeth II doubled the classic “an heir and a spare” two-kid insurance policy and had four. That means King Charles III (age 76) has three siblings:

1. Anne, Princess Royal (age 75)

2. Prince Andrew, Duke of York (age 65)

3. Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh (age 61)

In other British royalty news, William and Kate have moved into their “forever home” at Forest Lodge, about 20 miles from central London.