There’s no looking away from this Trump scoop
Twenty-four hours after it was published, ProPublica’s jaw-dropping exposé — “Donald Trump Jr.’s Bahamas Wedding Was Secretly Bankrolled by Russian Oligarch Close to Putin” — has become the publication’s most-read article of 2026.
The report registered more than 2.2 million views in the first day, a ProPublica spokesperson told me this morning.
The team did 14 TV interviews about the reporting yesterday, with more radio and podcast hits coming up today, “which we hope leads to more tips to inform ongoing reporting,” the spokesperson added.
Reporters Justin Elliott, Brett Murphy, Joshua Kaplan and Alex Mierjeski found that Umar Kremlev “spent hundreds of thousands on expenses like renting out a private island” for the Trumps. CNN’s Erin Burnett summed up the prevailing reaction on air last night: “Are you kidding me?”
One of her guests, former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb, reacted to the report by saying “these people are all at the trough,” and they’re doing it right in peoples’ faces “to try to create a sense of hopelessness and confusion and make us relent to the inevitability of Trump’s corruption.”
But the sheer volume of news coverage — and reader interest — shows that there’s no relenting.
Rachel Maddow, who praised the “elegant and meticulous reporting” on MS NOW last night, booked Murphy, who said, “It was really weird. And it still is weird that these two people who didn’t seem to have much of a shared history were describing themselves as close friends. It was strange.”
Ultimately, he said, “we could only kind of approximate the relationship. But what was never in doubt was these payments for the wedding. It was quite odd.”
Don Jr.’s wife Bettina Trump effectively confirmed the story by defending the gifts in an Instagram post. And the president downplayed the scandal in a statement, saying, “It was an ‘after-party’ given in their honor. Not a big deal!”
Trump sometimes defaults to that “nothing to see here” defense, but it doesn’t always work.
BTW, ProPublica will be dropping an episode of its new “Paper Trail” podcast later today with behind-the-scenes details about the reporting…
Final Nielsen #s for Sunday will be available this afternoon. But preliminary #s landed this morning, and a top TV exec tells me it “looks like the ‘60 Minutes’ premiere will be down more than 20%” versus the season premiere last year. The number to beat from last September was 10.3 million.
To be fair, the exec said, “the NFL lead-in is weaker this year.” And there have been Nielsen methodology changes. But it is “still going to be a pretty striking drop…”
The high court’s rejection of Trump’s plan to limit mail-in voting is a “significant loss for the president, who for years has railed against mail voting with false allegations of extensive fraud, while continuing to vote by mail himself,” CNN’s John Fritze wrote when the order came in last night.
The news broke during the 7 p.m. hour, but Laura Ingraham, a law school grad, didn’t bother to tell viewers. Jesse Watters and Sean Hannity also ignored it, even as Hannity gravely intoned that “we are only 50 days away from the single most important midterm election in our lifetime.”
Fox finally mentioned the SCOTUS ruling at 11:30 p.m. — for just 45 seconds. Meanwhile, the ruling was a top story almost everywhere else. The NYT’s lead story right now highlights the fact that Trump’s “battle to assert control over the election process is far from finished.”
When the president claimed that “the overall numbers” for night one of his midterm convention “beat the NFL,” long before any such numbers were available, I said I’d follow up once the ratings were in. It’s taken almost a week, but Nielsen has delivered, and now we know: Last Wednesday’s NFL kickoff game drew more than 25 million viewers. Trump’s speech reached about 3 million viewers.
The results weren’t any better for Trump on night two. Here’s my full story for CNN.com.
>> View from the left: Neera Tanden shared my story this morning and said “everywhere around us are signs the public is done with Donald Trump.”
“For a while now,” Jake Tapper says, “I have wanted to interview people in longer-form interviews about more than just the news of day, but also who they are, and how they became who they became. Their childhoods, their careers. And we are kicking this off with Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, who might be running for president in 2028.”
That’s the introduction to “Out of Office with Gavin Newsom,” which is streaming now on CNN All Access. The two men spoke while fly fishing in Montana, and viewers will immediately see that the setting stirred a different kind of interview.
“My horrible fly-fishing form notwithstanding, our fishing trek proved fruitful — if not for fish (though we caught a couple) — for conversation,” Tapper wrote here. He said he has also invited Marco Rubio and JD Vance, and GOP Rep. Thom Tillis has already agreed to participate.
TIME’s new cover, out this morning, captures the moment well: It shows a chatbot prompt and a user asking, “How dangerous are you?”
The cover story by Billy Perrigo, Harry Booth, and Naomi Nix is titled “The AI tipping point.” They report how a researcher investigating potentially rogue agents at OpenAI realized after just six days that “things were worse than she thought.” She now believes an agent could “gain a permanent foothold” in an AI company within the next six months.
Growing AI fears are creating some unlikely allies. Later today, Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Trump aide Steve Bannon will both appear at the Future of Life Institute’s “Pro-Human Assembly” to call for more human control over AI, even as Trump calls the concerns a “hoax…”
I’m intrigued by Jacob Weisberg’s new book “Profiles in Cowardice: A Study of Collaboration in the Trump Era,” the inverse of John F. Kennedy’s famous “Profiles in Courage.” Weisberg spoke with our friend Michael Calderone of NYMag here.
There are lots of other new releases today. Fox’s resident liberal Jessica Tarlov is launching “I Disagree: Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends.” Adam Jentleson is promoting “Supermajority: How Democrats Can Build Lasting Power.”
Andrew Huberman is already atop the Amazon best-selling books list with “Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body.” Colin Kaepernick is also near the top of the list with a memoir, “The Perilous Fight,” ten years almost to the day since taking a knee.
>> Also today: Axios co-founders Jim Vandehei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz are out with “Simplify: Do 50% More with 50% Less.” Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor are releasing “End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World.” Bill O’Reilly and Josh Hammer are promoting “Confronting America: What Has to Change.”
Bleecker Street “is moving up the theatrical release of ‘Musk’ — to October 9 — in response to intense interest in the documentary about the world’s richest man,” Deadline’s Matthew Carey reports. The doc was originally set to hit theaters on the 16th.
The WaPo’s Travis M. Andrews watched the four-hour doc and writes that it “paints Musk as an emotionally unstable grifter with more power and influence than perhaps any other human who has ever lived.” He says director Alex Gibney “pulls no punches, neither in the documentary nor in interviews about it.” Here’s a gift link to that piece…
“A new documentary called ‘NAZA,’ which details the Israeli military’s targeting of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, has sparked political and societal backlash in Israel,” CNN’s team reports. “Israel’s Culture Minister is threatening to strip filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor of their citizenship, accusing them of treason.” In this video, CNN’s Jeremy Diamond explains what’s in the film.
“NAZA” was produced by The Guardian, and in a statement yesterday the news organization denounced “the authoritarian response to ‘NAZA’ in Israel,” adding, the film “is based on more than three years of investigative journalism. The testimonies it contains are true and we believe they deserve to be heard. The interviews were given by confidential journalistic sources. We will robustly defend ‘NAZA’ — and the team behind it — from any attacks or attempts at censorship.”
*At least for one day. The Trump administration was pleased with Sunday’s premiere of the newsmagazine, a frequent target of Trump’s ire in the past.
The White House pushed out a press release yesterday touting the “60 Minutes” story about the rescue mission inside Iran. The Defense Department also posted clip after clip from the show on social media.
For Pete Hegseth, the “60” broadcast was a chance to highlight the heroic efforts of the US military. But here’s the thing: Americans don’t need any convincing about the heroism of the military. Opposition to the Iran war is driven by other factors. I don’t think viewers who oppose the war came away feeling swayed about it after hearing about the incredible rescue…
>> Something the White House didn’t love: After the “60” story about Trump’s pardon economy, “senior Democratic lawmakers vowed Monday to investigate,” CBS reported in this follow-up.
“The worst Emmy telecast in years had some great winners,” TV critic Alan Sepinwall wrote overnight, cheering the awards for Rhea Seehorn and “Widow’s Bay” while dissing the “ineptly-produced” show.
Apple TV won big with “Widow’s Bay” while HBO had two big winners with “The Pitt” and “DTF St. Louis.” Plus, “Jean Smart made history with a fifth consecutive win for her starring role in the comedy ‘Hacks,’” as CNN’s live blog coverage noted here.
>> Coming up: Stephen Colbert, who celebrated an Emmy for his “Late Show” team last night, will be on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” tonight.
>> Macklemore says that Ed Sheeran “dropped him from his current tour after the rapper’s recent onstage pro-Palestinian remarks allegedly drew a backlash from New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.” (Boston Globe)
>> Comcast and Paramount are reviewing their “strategic options” for the European joint venture streaming service SkyShowtime, which means it may be sold or shut down. (THR)
>> The European Union “will propose a ban restricting under 15s from social media, video sharing platforms, AI chatbots and online games, in the most sweeping plan yet to protect children from online dangers.” (Reuters)
>> Amazon Prime Video “is coming after TikTok with the addition of short-form news clips” for both local and national stories. (TechCrunch)
>> Netflix, Amazon and YouTube have formed a new DC lobbying coalition. (Axios)
Matt Belloni has the first look at Ari Emanuel’s forthcoming memoir. (Puck) Paramount’s “possible Hollywood exit” has “put L.A. on edge,” Meg James reports. (LAT) Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” just tied Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” for the longest-running Billboard #1 hit of all time. (RS) And Oprah Winfrey “is launching a two-hour immersive live show” at the Las Vegas Sphere in April. (People)
This edition of Reliable Sources was edited by Andrew Kirell and produced with Liam Reilly. Email us your feedback and tips here.