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TDFP News Roundup – 10/18/26

Writer: Yossi Schmidt
Yossi Schmidt
8 hours ago
7 min read

Today’s 20 stories from The Digital Free Press, led by our exclusive on a new Postal Service rule that lets USPS bill senders for unpaid foreign customs charges, President Trump’s jail warning to California election officials, the NAACP’s lawsuit over the Justice Department’s poll monitors, and the White House press secretary’s exit after five days.



Part 1: Top 10 Stories


1. TDFP Exclusive: USPS can bill senders for unpaid foreign customs charges

A new Postal Service rule taking effect Monday lets USPS bill people who mail packages abroad for foreign customs charges that go unpaid, The Digital Free Press reported. Under the rule, senders have to pay even if they dispute the charge or the package is lost, with 6% interest if they pay late.


2. Trump warns California election officials of jail over noncitizen ballots

President Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday that California election officials “will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!” and shared a Justice Department letter warning Los Angeles County of “significant” consequences for “facilitating or ignoring” illegal voting in a federal election, Breitbart News reported. The Justice Department sued California on Thursday over ballots from people federal officials flagged as possible noncitizens. Gov. Gavin Newsom called the lawsuit a “sad, desperate attempt by Trump to use his politicized Justice Department to try to suppress California voters.”


3. NAACP sues the Justice Department over its plan for 1,000 poll monitors

The NAACP and three of its members sued Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Justice Department in federal court in Washington on Friday, asking a judge to block parts of the department’s plan to send about 1,000 election monitors to polling places for the Nov. 3 midterms, The Digital Free Press reported. The complaint alleges that using criminal prosecutors and an FBI agent as monitors amounts to voter intimidation. The Justice Department says its monitoring is routine and nonpartisan.


4. White House press secretary Katie Zacharia is out after five days

Katie Zacharia left her post as White House press secretary on Friday after five days in the job and two rocky interviews on Fox News, the New York Post reported. President Trump told reporters Friday that he had asked her, “Is this for you, Katie? Because honestly, you don’t need this.” On X, Zacharia called Trump “a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man” and wrote, “It was an honor to work for him.”


5. Emmer: Omar should serve time and be deported if citizenship fraud is proven

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told Fox News Digital that Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., “should probably serve time” and then be deported if the federal investigation finds she or her father lied on immigration paperwork to get her citizenship, Fox News reported. Omar and other Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have denounced the probe as political persecution.

Source: Fox News


6. Slotkin says she wants prosecutions to deter young people from working for Trump

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said at a University of Chicago event on Tuesday that she wants “to look at these signature cases and not just focus on the president, but on the people who enabled him,” Breitbart News reported. “I want young people coming out of school to say, should I go work for the Trump administration? … I want them to be like, Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems,” Slotkin said. “I want that deterrence message.”


7. New no-drone zone along the U.S.-Mexico border targets cartel drones

Unauthorized drones are now barred along the U.S.-Mexico border from the ground up to 400 feet and one nautical mile deep, under a flight restriction from DHS, the Transportation Department and the Department of War aimed at cartel drones, The Digital Free Press reported. “This action will help counter cartel drone threats, protect our personnel, and strengthen security in the airspace above the border,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said.


8. Republicans push back as Trump eases limits on Russian diesel

The Trump administration has temporarily eased restrictions on Russian diesel, arguing it could lower prices for Americans and show Moscow the benefits of better relations, Fox News reported. Six Republican senators joined Democrats this week in urging Trump to reverse the decision, and five House Republicans signed a bipartisan letter seeking to revoke the Treasury authorization.

Source: Fox News


9. Judge orders the Trump administration to restart the diversity visa lottery

U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta of the Southern District of California has ordered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to hold the 2027 diversity visa lottery, which offers up to 55,000 green cards a year, the Daily Wire reported. Under the ruling, the State Department must announce the registration period by Oct. 29 and open online entries by Nov. 1. The administration paused the lottery in December after authorities identified the gunman in the deadly Brown University shooting as a man who got his green card through it in 2017.

Source: Daily Wire


10. Smuggling suspect caught with pipe bombs and a rifle near the Texas border

Border Patrol agents arrested Alec Ray Foss, 28, of Corpus Christi after stopping a boat near Port Mansfield, Texas, carrying three people in the country illegally, an AR-style rifle, a pistol and four suspected pipe bombs, according to a federal criminal complaint, Breitbart News reported. Court documents say Foss told agents he expected to be paid $3,000 in cash for each person he delivered to Houston.


Part 2: 10 More Stories, Only on TDFP


11. Trump at Kentucky rally: $100 million for a drug plant if Republicans win

At a rally in Highland Heights, Kentucky, on Saturday, President Trump said that if Republicans win in November, “the Department of War will be investing $100 million in the pharmaceutical company Antheia to revitalize a gigantic drug manufacturing facility in Winchester, Kentucky,” the New York Post reported. Trump said Democrats would block the investment if they win. He also went after the Democratic candidate for Sen. Mitch McConnell’s seat, who faces Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky.


12. Justice Department charges 16 noncitizens in illegal-voting cases in three states

The Justice Department announced charges Friday involving 16 noncitizens in North Carolina, New York and Idaho over illegal voting, false claims of U.S. citizenship and related election crimes, according to a department release. Ten of them are charged with illegally voting in the 2024 elections. The department notes that the charges are accusations and that every defendant is presumed innocent.


13. Trump: “zero chance” he replaces Chief of Staff Susie Wiles

President Trump told reporters Friday there was “zero chance” he would replace White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, calling a Politico report that he was considering it “a fake story,” the Daily Caller reported. “She’s been incredible,” Trump said. “She’s smart, she’s tough, she just went through a lot with the cancer surgery and the whole thing, and she recovered, fully recovered. She’s phenomenal.”

Source: Daily Caller


14. Final arch plans show an observation deck, but no “military complex”

The final plans for President Trump’s proposed 250-foot arch near Arlington National Cemetery, now before the National Capital Planning Commission, describe an observation deck, five elevators and granite cladding, The Digital Free Press reported. The documents make no mention of the “top grade Military Complex” Trump said in September the arch would become. The commission meets Nov. 5.


15. Platner’s campaign spent $2.3 million after he quit, nothing for his replacement

Graham Platner’s campaign has spent about $2.3 million since he exited Maine’s Senate race in July, paying severance to his wife and staff and keeping consultants on the books, but it made no contributions to Democratic nominee Troy Jackson or the Maine Democratic Party, according to a new Federal Election Commission filing, the Washington Examiner reported.


16. Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn is leaving

Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn announced Friday that he is leaving the job after 18 months, Breitbart News reported. “Director Curran and I have been working on a thoughtful transition plan for months now,” Quinn wrote on X, adding in a letter to employees, “This was not an easy decision.”


17. Feds: New Mexico man ran a meth and fentanyl ring from a Mexican prison cell

Federal prosecutors have charged Felix Anthony Salazar III, 34, of New Mexico, alleging that he coordinated meth sales to undercover agents from his cell in a Mexican prison, Breitbart News reported. Prosecutors say the group moved methamphetamine and fentanyl smuggled from Ciudad Juarez. Salazar turned himself in at a port of entry in El Paso after his release from the Mexican prison.


18. FEC records: Barbara Bush gave $2,500 to a PAC backing Democrat James Talarico

Barbara Bush, a daughter of former President George W. Bush, gave $2,500 on Sept. 23 to Lone Star Rising PAC, a super PAC supporting Democrat James Talarico in Texas’ U.S. Senate race, according to Federal Election Commission records first reported by the Austin American-Statesman, Breitbart News reported. Bush campaigned for Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania in 2024 and has said she does not identify with either party.


19. FTC chief Andrew Ferguson to lead AI law enforcement for the White House task force

The White House’s artificial intelligence task force has put Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson in charge of its law enforcement and consumer protection committee, which includes the Justice Department, the Daily Caller reported. “Chairman Ferguson is honored to be chosen by President [Donald] Trump,” FTC public affairs director Joe Simonson said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Source: Daily Caller


20. Gov. Sherrill on the Fort Hood shooter’s execution: “This is not justice”

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, D, said on MS NOW on Friday that soldiers ordered to the firing squad for the Fort Hood shooter will be told “you’re going to go shoot this guy who’s in a wheelchair” and will “have to carry that burden,” Breitbart News reported. “I believe in justice. I’m a former federal prosecutor. This is not justice,” Sherrill said, calling the now-canceled plan to stream the execution “disrespectful to soldiers.”


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