The U.S. Supreme Court kicked off the closing stretch of this term with a triple blow to President Donald Trump.

In a much-watched case surrounding states’ rights and voting, the court ruled that the federal government cannot require states to toss mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, as long as they are postmarked by that deadline.

Trump wants to ban most voting by mail, and the Republican National Committee had sued Mississippi, which grants a five-day grace period for ballots received after Election Day as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

“The ruling, authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, is a setback for President Donald Trump, who has frequently criticized mail-in voting, claiming without offering evidence that it is rife with fraud,” NBC News reported. The votes of hundreds of thousands of Americans voting by mail were counted in the 2024 election despite being received after Election Day.

“This ruling is a big loss for Trump & GOP allies who have repeatedly claimed that ballots postmarked by Election Day – but arriving days later in the mail – should not be counted,” observed journalist Jamie Dupree. “That issue is now off the table for the 2026 midterms.”

Trump himself recognized the ruling as a “tremendous loss” just one hour after it was handed down — and he used it to again call for passage of his SAVE America Act, which critics say is a voter suppression bill.

He wrote that there was only one reason to oppose the legislation: “Cheating!”

“In a time when there is a powerful Communist Movement taking place in our Country, one more dangerous than World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, or September 11th, all Dumocrats, and our five Republican Senate Hold Outs, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Thom Tillis, Bill Cassidy, and Mitch McConnell must vote to save our country,” he wrote. “There can be no more excuses!”

Trump also faced another loss on Monday, when the court ruled that the president could not fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, at least for now. NBC News called the court’s ruling a “setback” for Trump. The court did, however, grant the president greater control over other independent federal agencies, a win Trump quickly trumpeted.

“It is such an Honor to be the sitting President who won this Historic and Unprecedented Ruling, one of the most important ever given with respect to Presidential Powers,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The Supreme Court also refused to review lower-court rulings that require Trump to pay journalist E. Jean Carroll $5 million.

“A 2023 trial found President Donald Trump liable for allegedly sexually assaulting journalist E. Jean Carroll,” The Washington Post reported. “The decision Monday leaves in place a ruling affirming the judgment.”

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The entire GOP political ecosystem — the White House, political action committees, and Republican congressional committees — is working together to target one group of voters strategists believe can help Republicans keep control of Congress, according to a NOTUS report.

“We kind of compare notes on everything, making sure that we’re all seeing the world the same way. Which we do,” Joe Pileggi, the Congressional Leadership Fund’s political director, told NOTUS. “There’s no fragmentation in our thinking.”

NOTUS reports that the GOP believes “low-propensity voters” — those who rarely vote during the midterms — will be the key to their success. And they specifically are focusing on male, blue-collar, and Hispanic voters. Republican strategists have a new “dataset” of this group of voters, which they believe will help them know who to focus on, via a “tailored digital ad campaign targeting those voters,” an upcoming “robust mail program,” and a “voter canvassing program.”

“What we’re doing in ‘26 is mostly a continuation and refinement of what we did in ‘24 and had a lot of success with,” Michael Ambrosini, the RNC’s chief of staff, told NOTUS. “If we can reassemble that part of the president’s coalition in marginal swing House districts, you’re in a great spot.”

“None of us are overconfident at all,” Tim Saler, the chief data consultant for Trump’s successful 2024 campaign, who is now at MAGA Inc., told NOTUS. “We all respect the challenges we face and understand how difficult it is going to be to overcome history. But we know what we’re doing.”

Theresa Vaccaro, political director for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), told NOTUS, “There has never been an operation like this before.”

Vaccaro said that because the group they are targeting is much smaller, they have the opportunity to spend more time with them.

“In 2018, it was about quantity over quality,” Vaccaro said. “I would rather have a staffer out there for an hour and talk to 15 voters than you tell me you knocked on 40 doors in that hour and dropped a bunch of literature.”

Some Democrats are dismissing the GOP program.

“The GOP’s ground game is a consulting revenue stream dressed up as a turnout program,” Yasmin Radjy, executive director of the liberal group Swing Left, told NOTUS.

The question of President Donald Trump’s popularity still remains, especially with strategists focusing on GOP voters who turned out for Trump in 2024.

NOTUS reported that Trump “might not have the same appeal to some of his old supporters” after failing to lower the cost of living.

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President Donald Trump teased his upcoming Faith and Freedom Coalition speech on Friday with a long screed fear-mongering that progressive Democrats will “attack all Religions, but in particular, Christianity.”

Trump posted the warning to his social media platform, Truth Social shortly before he was scheduled to speak to the conservative advocacy organization at its annual conference.

“I will be speaking at 1:30 P.M. to The Faith and Freedom Coalition, and one of the Statements I will be making, perhaps the most important of them all, concerns the recent Election of Communists in our Country. Communism is very easy to sell. I’d be the Greatest Communist in History. I’d give free rent, free houses, free food, everything is free. Unfortunately, after two or three years, the Country where this is taking place would fail. It always does, and then you’ll start living in squalor. There will be no food, there will be no housing, there will be no Military, there will be no nothing,” Trump wrote.

READ MORE: ‘Rededicating the Country to God’: Trump White House Hosts Evangelical Christian Festival

“You’ll be Third World every way, and everyone will suffer or die. I’m sorry to say, but Assassinations of those who oppose them is a very important element of their Ideology. They’re animals! In many cases, not smart but, in some cases, they are,” he continued, railing against the Democratic party establishment for not “fighting back” against them, saying establishment Dems are not “smart enough or tough enough” to block progressive Democrats from winning primary elections or serving if elected.

“If they fought them the way they fight Republicans, or me, they’d be victorious, but they don’t have the courage to do so,” Trump said.

Referring to progressives that have recently won primaries—most notably in New York where the three candidates endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani trounced establishment Democrats this Tuesday—Trump said they were not “social Dumocrats” but “hard core, godless Communists.”

Of the three candidates, while Claire Valdez does not appear to have discussed her religious affiliation, Brad Lander is Jewish and Darializa Avila Chevalier is a convert to Islam, according to the Guardian.

Trump called the candidates the “most serious threat to our Country since its existence 250 years ago.”

“These ruthless Communists will attack all Religions but, in particular, Christianity – They always do. All Communist Countries attack Religions violently. As you know, we recently struck Nigeria, and largely ended the slaughter of their Great Christian population. They know that if they go further, the attack will be far greater and, in that, they don’t want to get involved. I am saving Christians throughout the World, even though we are not in those various Countries, by hitting these Terrorists violently and hard. They will close your Churches, they will kill your people. This is what they’re about. This is the Greatest Threat to our Country since its Founding 250 years ago!” Trump wrote.

Trump ordered strikes in Nigeria last year after accusing its government of not stopping the persecution of Christians, according to The Guardian. At the time he accused Islamic State militants in the country of “targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!”

Nigeria’s government has countered claims that extremists are primarily targeting Christians, but rather people of all faiths. While some clashes have been along religious lines, like between Muslim herders and Christian farmers, the Guardian reported, the skirmishes have been over land and water rather than religion. Likewise, though priests have been kidnapped in Nigeria, the cause is related more to money than religious persecution, according to the Guardian.

“Terrorist violence in any form, whether directed at Christians, Muslims or other communities, remains an affront to Nigeria’s values and to international peace and security,” the Nigerian Foreign Ministry said at the time of Trump’s strikes.

The Faith and Freedom Coalition is holding its Road to Majority Conference at the Washington Hilton Friday. This marks the first time Trump has returned to the Hilton since the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner this year. During that dinner, a shooter was stopped by Secret Service agents from carrying out an alleged assassination attempt against Trump, according to The Hill.

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