Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
Trump fired all three remaining members of the federal Election Assistance Commission, leaving the agency with zero commissioners as the 2026 cycle begins. West Virginia spent $3 million building a university center to fight “woke ideology,” and exactly one student enrolled. Eric Trump’s Bitcoin company has erased more than $600 million from his stake and hit an all-time low. And tech companies are racing onto tribal land to build AI data centers.
Corporate media is running cover. The FCC chair is making sure they know what happens if they don’t. And independent outlets are being bought out one by one. This is the news they don’t want you reading. AlterNet America is the people-powered response to the MAGA billionaire takeover of American media. We are reader-funded, editorially independent, and not for sale. We exist because of you. If you’re not yet a paid subscriber, please upgrade today.
Now, let’s go.
Trump Fired Every Commissioner at the Election Agency
Donald Trump fired three people on Thursday, which used to mean a new episode of The Apprentice was on.
Trump fired all remaining members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission on Thursday, abruptly disabling the only federal agency devoted solely to election administration. The two Democratic commissioners, Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland, were notified by email. The email thanked them for their service.
The lone Republican, Christy McCormick, was allowed to resign. A fourth commissioner, Donald Palmer, had already left earlier this year to join the Heritage Foundation.
The math here is simple. A four-member commission now has four vacancies. It cannot take official action until the Senate confirms new members, and no more than two can come from the same party.
The timing is not an accident. The firings came days after the Supreme Court granted the president power to remove leaders of independent agencies, gutting a legal framework that had insulated bipartisan commissions from the White House for decades.
The EAC certifies voting systems and maintains the national voter registration form. Many states won’t buy or use voting machines without its certification. That work is now frozen heading into a midterm election.
West Virginia Spent $3 Million on One Student to Fight “Woke”
One is the loneliest number, and at West Virginia University, also the enrollment figure.
At the college’s new Washington Center for Civics, Culture and Statesmanship, just one student is reportedly enrolled ahead of its opening this fall. Republican lawmakers mandated the center in 2025 and allocated $3 million to build it.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey said the center would push back on “the woke ideology that has infected our schools.” It offers classes on wokeness, the “new right,” and Western Civilization.
Defenders say enrollment will climb once the classes count for credit toward existing majors. Iowa tried a similar Republican-backed center and had to mandate that students attend it.
Here is the part that stings. The center was created just after a $45 million budget shortfall forced WVU to cut 28 academic majors and lay off hundreds of people. So the university eliminated 28 majors that students actually wanted, then spent $3 million on one that one student did.
One of the classes they cut must’ve been supply and demand.
This newsletter has more readers than the WVU Washington Center has students, and we’d like to keep it that way. If you like this kind of reporting, a paid subscription is the best way to keep it going. Unlike a $3 million government-funded center, this thing has to earn its enrollment.
Eric Trump Lost $600 Million on Bitcoin
American Bitcoin Corp. was built on a simple idea: that owning and mining Bitcoin would be enough to mint money. It turns out it was enough to incinerate it.
The company co-founded by Eric Trump has watched its shares slump more than 95% from their peak, erasing over $600 million from the market value of his stake in ten months. On Wednesday, the stock hit an all-time low.
The problem, per Bloomberg, is that investors soured on crypto pure-plays and preferred miners that could pivot their infrastructure to AI. American Bitcoin stuck with crypto.
This week the company was forced into a 1-for-15 reverse stock split just to keep its Nasdaq listing. Eric Trump owns roughly 6% and serves as chief strategy officer. Donald Trump Jr. is an adviser with an undisclosed stake.
The irony writes itself. The predecessor company, American Data Centers Inc., originally pitched itself as an AI data-center venture, which Eric Trump called “crucial for the development of AI infrastructure in the United States.” A month later, it pivoted to Bitcoin mining.
For the record, President Trump reported at least $1.4 billion in crypto earnings last year. Some Trumps are better at crypto than others.
Big Tech Wants Tribal Land for AI Data Centers
The pitch to Native tribes is straightforward. Your land is vast, your workforce is eager, and best of all, nobody can stop us.
That is the case being made to tribes across Oklahoma, where the AI data center boom has arrived and 38 federally recognized nations are being asked to decide fast. One expert calls the state “ground zero.”
The appeal for tech companies is speed. Energy projects on non-tribal land can face permitting delays of three to 10 years. On tribal land, where nations hold sovereign authority over their own regulations, projects can move much faster.
The division cuts through the tribes themselves. Bobby Gonzalez, the Caddo chairman, sees hope after his nation’s casino closed in 2017. “We’re not poor,” he said. “We’re broke.” Chebon Kernell of the Seminole Nation sees “the false fruits of wealth.”
Water is the recurring fear. Last fall, activists interrupted an AI panel by chanting “You can’t drink data!” The Seminole council passed the first tribal data center moratorium after a developer nondisclosure agreement surfaced at the bottom of a meeting agenda.
Promising prosperity in exchange for land and resources on a fast timeline with limited oversight. If this sounds familiar to Native nations, it should.
Nobody Owns This Newsletter but You
There is a reason so much of the press treats the president firing every commissioner at an election agency as a scheduling item. The FCC chair has made it clear what happens to broadcasters who cover this administration too closely, and the billionaires buying up newsrooms have made it clear what stories they’d rather not run.
We don’t have that problem. We don’t have a license to lose, a merger to protect, or an owner with a portfolio to defend. We have you, and that’s the whole business model. It’s also the only one that lets us tell you the election agency has zero commissioners and the president can’t legally install his own.
If you want this reporting to keep coming, it has to be paid for by the people who read it. Hit the button below and become a paid subscriber today.
Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you tonight.
POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Court Blocks Right-Wing Effort to Rig the Census Count. Stephen Miller’s America First Legal sued in Florida claiming the Census Bureau’s standard statistical methods shortchanged Florida Republicans in the 2020 count. A three-judge panel, including both Obama and Trump appointees, permanently tossed the case, finding the plaintiffs filed years too late and couldn’t show they were actually harmed. AFL has appealed to the Supreme Court, but the real punchline is what the lawsuit was trying to set up: the plaintiffs used this argument as one of many pretexts for Florida’s mid-decade gerrymandering, which could hand Republicans up to four extra House seats.
New York Sues 3M, DuPont and Others Over “Forever Chemicals.” New York Attorney General Letitia James sued 3M, DuPont, and several spinoff companies on Thursday for knowingly selling toxic PFAS chemicals for decades while hiding the health and environmental risks from consumers. The chemicals, used in everything from nonstick cookware to cosmetics, are called “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down in the environment, which is a great feature for a frying pan and a terrible feature for a drinking supply. James wants the companies to fund cleanup, warn consumers, and pay damages. The timing is notable as the Trump EPA has been rolling back PFAS regulations.
Marietta Freezes All New Data Centers After Public Outcry. Marietta, Georgia, city leaders voted Wednesday to table a controversial data center rezoning on Powers Ferry Place after hours of intense community protest. Dozens of residents packed City Hall to standing-room capacity while others chanted outside with signs over noise, water pollution, and public health concerns. The council also approved a temporary moratorium on all new data center projects running through Dec. 31, giving officials time to study the industry. Former state senator Chuck Clay insisted the project was “not a data center” but a “transmission of information center.” The audience cheered anyway when it was tabled.
Four Cities Show Climate Resilience Can Save Lives and Money. London, Philadelphia, Ahmedabad, and Medellín are proving that climate adaptation doesn’t require futuristic megaprojects. London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone charges high-emission vehicles and has cut nitrogen dioxide pollution in some neighborhoods, while Philadelphia’s Green City, Clean Waters program uses rain gardens and permeable pavement to manage stormwater more cheaply than underground drainage. After a 2010 heatwave killed more than 1,300 people in its region, Ahmedabad built one of South Asia’s first Heat Action Plans, and Medellín’s network of “green corridors” lowered local temperatures by several degrees Celsius.
