Page F2From§Eachthe wee small hours edition — 17 September 2026
“You ask about gas prices and tariffs, the stuff that actually hits your wallet, and what you get handed back is a nickname for the other guy — that's the whole play, they never answer, they just insult somebody adjacent and hope you forget what you asked. The "truck-driving everyman" campaign turns right around and drops six figures on a private jet. The jet receipt's real; the answer on gas prices never showed up, and it's not going to.”
“Look, the president addressed crime, which frankly polls higher with voters than a gas pump — that's message discipline, not evasion, and frankly a farmer's one guy. The jet — that's a vendor decision, campaigns charter aircraft all the time, totally standard, that's — why am I litigating a leased plane. The record-setting wins speak for themselves, whatever cycle they happened to land in, and that's not spin, that's just the record.”
Earlier in this story
The receipts
299 mass shootings recorded in the US so far this year Gun Violence Archive
Trump bashes Democrats on crime while campaigning for Michael Whatley in North CarolinaWhatley, the former Republican National Committee chairman, faces Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper in a critical race for the Senate.
President Donald Trump is headed to North Carolina on Wednesday to rally for Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley. THESE STATES WILL MAKE OR BREAK A SENATE MAJORITY IN NOVEMBER Trump is set to take the stage at 7 p.m., marking his first appearance as a candidate since the Republican National Committee’s first-of-its-kind midterm…
President Trump is traveling to North Carolina to stump for Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley. CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes spoke with Whatley ahead of the president's appearance.
“He ended up losing the race because of that one incident, because he allowed a dirty, rotten killer to come out and rape and kill .. same as what you have over here,” Trump said at the Gastonia, NC, rally.
President Trump made his first campaign stop in North Carolina Wednesday since last week's Republican National Committee (RNC) Midterm Convention, rallying for Senate candidate Michael Whatley as Republicans hope to keep the Tar Heel State's seat red this November. Trump claimed the battleground state during his three presidential runs.…
President Donald Trump on Wednesday ripped into former North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and his “band of communists” for crime in the state, branding his chosen candidate in the Tarheel State Senate race, Michael Whatley, as tough on crime.
North Carolina Senate nominee Michael Whatley’s committees have spent over $100,000 for use of a private jet linked to a convicted felon
· EXCLUSIVE: Newsom says Democrats ‘stopped showing up’ as California governor makes his case to the South from the morgue, 8 Sep 2026
· Newsom’s South Carolina trip doubles as test of Democrats’ rebuilding strategy from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.