The Daily Brief
Today
Good morning. The presidential pardon now has a price tag. Brokers are offering felons a path to Trump pardons at a steep price with no guarantees — clemency turned into a market, sold to whoever can afford the entry fee. The same machinery runs in reverse against those who cross the administration: Gavin Newsom [brushed aside an escalating federal investigation into his administration and the donations paying for his travel, calling it retribution](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-09-13/newsom-brushes-aside-escalating-doj-probe-into-travel-as-retribution) for criticizing Trump. One Justice Department, bought at one end and aimed at enemies at the other.
Ordinary people pay with their bodies. Former EPA officials warn that Trump is letting the data centers powering AI make people sick — a concrete threat in the communities the industry pollutes, while tech oligarchs grandstand about a distant AI superintelligence. The danger isn't the machine's imagined future; it's the poisoned air around it now.
On the economy, Trump said US interest rates should be the lowest in the world, piling pressure on Fed chair Kevin Warsh days before the bank is expected to raise rates. Cheap money on demand — for capital, whatever it costs everyone else.
Public health keeps buckling: Pennsylvania reported another measles-related death as its outbreak grew to 676 cases — the third death, an unvaccinated woman, in an outbreak that has sickened more than 670 people. The opposition offers little back: a CBS News/YouGov poll found 54 percent of Democratic voters are driven more by opposition to Trump than by the party's platform, while Obama urged Democrats to build a clear plan on AI policy. A party defined by what it stands against, not what it will fight for.
Zoom out: One Justice Department bent two ways at once — clemency sold to those who can pay while investigators are turned on those who criticize the president.