Good morning! It's a good day to be a TikTok user. President Trump is expected to sign a deal today to facilitate the sale of the Chinese app to American owners, ensuring it doesn't get nuked by the 2024 sell-or-get-banned law. On the other hand, it’s probably a bad day to own stock in Tylenol maker Kenvue after, well, you know. All that.

It’s probably a busy day for Nintendo’s lawyers, though, now that the Department of Homeland Security is dropping Pokémon-themed deportation supercuts on social media.

Anyway, on with the news…

WORLD

🌐 Trump makes fun of Europe in address to United Nations

We aim to please here at The Elective. So today, we’re bringing you the hard news you’re clamoring for: updates on the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Now you don’t have to watch C-SPAN like some sort of loser*.

The General Assembly is the U.N.’s deliberative body. It’s the big meeting of all 193 member states at the U.N.’s main headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. The current session kicked off on September 9 and has so far been dominated by, of course, Donald Trump.

• The U.N. doesn’t have much power. Sovereign, independent countries can do pretty much whatever they can get away with.

• But the General Assembly is a key forum for talking things out and forcing the rest of the world to sit there and listen to whatever you have to say.

Trump addressed the U.N. on Tuesday, and technology was not his friend. The escalators in the lobby broke down the moment he and Melania stepped onto them, his microphone wouldn’t work, and he had to wing his speech after the teleprompter quit.

• The Secret Service is investigating the escalator incident as a security issue.

• U.N. employees reportedly joked last week about turning off the escalator when Trump arrived.

His topic of choice? Everything. The president used his roughly hour-long speech to lambaste the U.N., chastise Europe, oppose Palestine, and, obviously, wonder aloud why he hadn’t been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to end “seven wars.”

United Nations: Trump slammed the U.N. for allegedly providing “food, shelter, transportation, and debit cards to illegal aliens” entering the U.S. He later told U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that, despite his disagreements, he is “100%” behind the U.N. because the “potential for peace” there is so great.

Europe: He ragged on Europe for buying into the “green energy scam” and committing to the "double-tailed monster" of green energy and high immigration. That’s a combo nacho that Trump believes "destroys everything in its wake.”

Ukraine: Trump again threatened to hit Russia with higher tariffs if Putin doesn't start negotiating. He later met with Ukraine's president and shockingly said he believes Ukraine, with European and NATO support, can win "all of Ukraine back in its original form."

Palestine: Should the world recognize Palestine as an independent country, as many in Europe believe? In his view, no. “The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists." Instead, Trump called for the release of the remaining Israeli hostages. In a later meeting with Arab leaders, Trump promised that he wouldn’t let Israel annex the West Bank (basically, that’s Palestine’s primary territory).

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations. After French President Emmanuel Macron’s big speech to the U.N. on recognizing Palestine, he got stuck in a New York City street closure caused by Trump’s motorcade. The NYPD wouldn’t let Macron pass. Macron whipped out his phone and called Trump for assistance. No dice.

Related: Trump plans to continue his transformation of foreign aid spending by prioritizing "investment over assistance." He wants to shift $1.8 billion toward "America First" initiatives, like partnerships in Greenland and Latin America.

*For the record, even we don’t watch C-SPAN.

GOVERNMENT

🚫 President Trump signed an executive order on Monday designating Antifa as a "domestic terrorist organization." Antifa, short for "anti-fascist," is a decentralized left-wing militant movement. It's often associated on social media with the Portlandia-looking, masked rioters decked out in black and wreaking havoc (or, alternatively, protesting fascism). Trump's order directs federal agencies to "investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all illegal operations." But determining who is and isn't Antifa could prove difficult. Past federal officials have considered it more of an ideology than a specific group. And some Trump critics worry the order could be used to crack down on legitimate protests, violating Americans' First Amendment rights. The State Department considers 219 foreign groups to be terrorists, but this is the first domestic designation.

👮 Someone shot at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Dallas on Wednesday morning from a nearby rooftop. One immigrant detainee is dead, and two others are in critical condition. No ICE employees were hit. The shooter took his own life when agents approached. According to FBI Director Kash Patel, an unused bullet was found near the gunman with the phrase "ANTI-ICE" written on it. This attack follows a bomb threat made against this same facility in August. In related news, the Department of Homeland Security claimed on Tuesday that 2 million people "have been removed or self-deported" since January. DHS also denied accusations that it used a child as bait to force her father's surrender.

🕵️ When the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) isn’t busy being the federal law enforcement agency with the coolest name, it’s busy … seizing a network of more than 100,000 SIM cards and 300 SIM servers that could overwhelm and take down New York City’s entire cell system. The devices were discovered across multiple locations that form a ring around NYC. The equipment is so powerful that it could text every human in the United States in just 12 minutes. No arrests have been announced.

TRIVIA

Well, that didn’t last long. Jimmy Kimmel returned to your mom’s TV on Tuesday after less than a week in timeout. But the fight over his future isn’t over. Two companies, Sinclair and Nexstar, own around 70 local ABC stations and are refusing to air Kimmel’s show in their markets (including D.C., Tulsa, St. Louis, Seattle, Nashville, and New Orleans).

Regardless, Kimmel’s contract is up in 2026 and was already unlikely to be renewed. Late-night shows just ain’t what they used to be. But they have been key stops for American presidents in the past. Who was the first sitting U.S. president to appear on a late-night talk show?

Hint: It’s more recent than you might expect.

POLITICS

📚️ Miami lands Trump library as shutdown showdown continues

Donald Trump looks set to go down as history’s Floridiest Florida Man. State officials will vote next week on donating 2.63 acres in the heart of downtown Miami to house the future Donald J. Trump Presidential Library. Trump being Trump, the development is also expected to include a hotel.

• Miami Dade College currently owns the land and beat out competing bids from Florida Atlantic University and Florida International University.

• Sites closer to Mar-a-Lago, which lies about 60 miles to the north, were also considered.

Planning is also underway for a Biden library in Delaware, and construction continues on the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago ahead of its planned opening next spring.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, Congress is taking the week off. That long, difficult three-week stretch of work in September was too much to bear after having not taken a vacation since … the entirety of August.

But the fight to pass a budget before the government's funding runs out on Tuesday isn’t stopping. And the two parties are nowhere near an agreement.

• Republicans want to extend the current budget (which they wrote) for a few months while they work out a full budget for the rest of fiscal year 2026.

• Democrats are refusing to agree to that unless Republicans agree to boost healthcare subsidies.

Barring a miracle, the unfunded government will shut down early next week. Public opinion of these fights usually favors Democrats, but some Dems are worried things will be different this time.

• New polling indicates voters prefer Republicans on a whole slew of issues, including the economy, crime, immigration, and even gun control.

• That said, Democrats do lead in healthcare, and only 41% of Americans approve of Trump's job performance.

Elsewhere in the political world:

1. John McCain’s youngest son, Jimmy, was appointed to a seat on the Arizona State Board of Regents.

2. Early voting in the race for governor of Virginia began on Friday and far outpaced 2021 totals.

3. Dr. Ben Carson, a Trump 1.0 Cabinet member, will join the Department of Agriculture as a nutrition and healthcare advisor.

BRIEFS

● YouTube dropped a doozy in a letter to Congress on Tuesday. It claimed that it had been forced to remove content that the Biden administration considered “misinformation.” Users banned under the policy have now been invited back to the platform.

● The Supreme Court agreed to hear a case over whether Trump can fire a Biden-appointed FTC official. Six justices signaled their willingness to overturn a landmark 1935 decision restricting a president's ability to remove certain federal officials.

● Ryan Routh was found guilty on Tuesday of trying to assassinate then-candidate Donald Trump on a golf course last year. Upon conviction, Routh tried to commit suicide in the courtroom by stabbing himself in the neck with an ink pen.

● The Defense Advisory Committee for Women in the Services is no more. A spokesperson accused the committee, created in 1951, of "advancing a divisive feminist agenda" that undermines the department’s new "sex-neutral standards.

● President Trump will award his first-term Housing Secretary, Dr. Ben Carson, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Carson is a retired pediatric neurosurgeon who also won the award back in 2008. The Medal of Freedom is America’s highest civilian honor.

● Hundreds of government employees fired during the DOGE blitz earlier this year could soon return to work. The General Services Administration (GSA), which manages federal real estate, has given them until tomorrow to accept or decline reinstatement.

QUOTE

ANSWER

When he appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” in 2009, Barack Obama became the first sitting president to roll into a late-night talk show. But plenty of others have swung by as candidates, beginning with JFK in 1960.