Voters are now more concerned about government corruption than any other issue, including high grocery and gas prices, according to the final CNBC All-America Economic Survey before the Nov. 3 midterm election.
The finding follows a monthslong messaging effort by Democrats to link widespread economic dissatisfaction with what they allege is rampant corruption by President Donald Trump and his Republican allies.
CNBC’s survey of 1,000 registered U.S. voters found 36% of respondents pointing to government corruption as one of the most important issues facing the country right now. The cost of food and groceries came second with 34%, followed by protecting democracy and the price of gas, which garnered 23% each.
Katie Robertson at NYT:
A federal judge on Saturday once again threw out President Trump’s defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over its reporting that linked the president and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The president had argued that The Journal had maligned his “character and integrity” when it published an article in 2025 about a lewd birthday greeting that Mr. Trump appeared to have written to Mr. Epstein more than 20 years earlier. Mr. Trump denied writing the greeting and sued The Journal, asking for $10 billion in damages.
On Saturday, Judge Darrin P. Gayles of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida granted The Journal’s request that the complaint be dismissed, writing that the president “has failed” to prove that The Journal had “acted with actual malice.”
Actual malice is a legal standard that must be met by public figures in defamation proceedings. It means the defendants knew what they were publishing was false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.
“In effect, President Trump argues that once he declared the Letter a ‘fake,’ Defendants should have disregarded everything else they learned in their investigation and not published the story,” Judge Gayles wrote in a 20-page decision. “But that is not what the actual malice standard requires and runs afoul of the First Amendment.”
Judge Gayles dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning the claim cannot be refiled again.
AI (obviously lol): #Epstein thanks #Trump and Congress. https://t.co/U5LNdtqcMY
— #Anonymous (@TheStripesGirl) October 31, 2026
