If former President Donald Trump is to be believed, some of the richest and most powerful people in the world have called him to lavish him with compliments. Though most leaders of major tech companies haven’t publicly endorsed him — with one glaring exception — Trump claims they’ve privately told him how cool he is, implied they’d be better off under a Trump presidency, or said they aren’t voting for his opponent.
Among Trump’s claims: Google CEO Sundar Pichai congratulated him on his stint as a McDonald’s employee, calling it “one of the biggest things we’ve seen on Google”; Tim Cook called him to complain about fines the European Union levied on Apple; Mark Zuckerberg called him multiple times to “apologize” and said there’s “no way”...
An Elon Musk-funded super PAC has expanded an advertising campaign in which it is impersonating Democrats and targeting registered Republicans with policies unpopular with conservatives they say Kamala Harris will pass if she wins the election. The policies, which are not supported by the Harris campaign, include “mandatory” gun buy-back programs, allowing undocumented immigrants to vote, keeping parents out of decisions about gender-affirming care for minors, and imagining “a world without gas-powered vehicles.”
The campaign, called Progress 2028, is designed to look like it is the Democratic version of Project 2025 and lists a set of policies that the group says Harris would enact if elected president. In actuality, the entire scheme is being orchestrated and promoted by an Elon Musk-funded group called Building America’s Future, which registered to operate “Progress 2028” as a “fictitious name” under the PAC, according to documents uncovered by OpenSecrets, which investigates money in politics. Building America’s Future is the group we previously reported on, which is targeting Muslims in Michigan and Jewish people in Pennsylvania with opposing messages about Harris’s stance on Israel’s invasion of Palestine.
Until last weekend, the group had been relatively quiet, running only two very similar ads on Facebook that said Harris was running on a platform for “safe, inclusive schools … where every young person can thrive, regardless of their gender identity or expression.” Another ad said “SAY IT WITH US: Every person, no matter their immigration status, undocumented or not, deserves access to Medicare.” Republicans in swing states have also been receiving text message ads with similar messaging, according to screenshots posted to Reddit, research shared with 404 Media, and registered Republicans who have shared screenshots of ads with 404 Media. The ads feature caricatured, exaggerated versions of Democratic policies that are widely unpopular with conservatives.
The Progress 2028 page spent $36,724 on those Facebook ads between October 6 and October 12, according to Meta’s ad library.
In the last week alone, it has increased that spend by nearly 1,000 percent, spending $328,590 and bringing its total spend on Facebook to more than $520,000. These ads say things like “Let’s remove barriers for undocumented immigrants who are undocumented!” “Help make our schools as trans-friendly as possible,” “A national, mandatory buy-back program means fewer guns & fewer tragedies. Kamala Harris gets it!” “Kamala Harris will champion the right for minors to access the care they need without fear of parental intervention or discrimination. Let’s work together to transform our schools into the most trans-friendly environments possible!” “We’re beyond thrilled to have Kamala on our side for the ban on fracking!” “Imagine a world without gas-powered vehicles. KAMALA HAS! SEE HER VISION FOR OUR FUTURE.”
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Do you know anything else about Progress 2028 or political ads more broadly? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at +1 202 505 1702. Otherwise, send me an email at jason@404media.co.
In the last week, Progress 2028 bought 12 different ads, which it subtargeted to 819 different Facebook audience segments. Judging the actual impact and spread of this on Facebook is complicated because of Meta’s not-very-good ad library analytics. Meta allows an advertiser to buy an ad, then to target different groups with that advertisement. Meta’s ad library tells users the number of times any given ad was targeted at a different audience but does not say what the targeting parameters are and gives very rough estimates for the number of people who have been hit with any ad. Meta's audience estimates will say things like an ad cost "less than $100" and was seen by "less than 1,000 people," but there will be dozens of versions of any single ad, and the total ad spend can be hundreds of thousands of dollars. It looks like this:
Over the weekend and on Monday, a Republican-registered voter in Pennsylvania told 404 Media he got “fake Harris campaign” text messages from Progress 2028 that he shared with us. One said “Imagine a world where we get dangerous guns off our streets — for good,” and which promotes a gun buyback program. Another text sent to them today says “Kamala Harris supports undocumented immigrants gaining access to Medicare and essential resources. And that’s a good thing!” And a third says “What would you say to a future with ZERO fracking and 100% electric vehicles by 2035? We say 😍… and ‘how can we help?’ Kamala Harris fighting for a greener future!”
While Facebook’s ad library is limited in the information you can search for and discover, political text message ads are an almost total black box. No telecom company shares a database of political text message ads, meaning any information about them comes from the people receiving them sharing them with reporters or on social media. So while it’s possible to more-or-less track Progress 2028’s activity online, it is essentially impossible to follow its text messaging campaigns.
Government transparency expert Alex Howard wrote about this problem last week, and noted that TV and radio stations are required to publish records of political ads online; he argues that telecom companies should be required to, also.
“For many decades, broadcasters have been legally obligated to maintain these ad files at stations for public inspection,” Howard wrote. “In 2018, I was worried that we’d see ephemeral social media messages funded by dark money that targeted certain voters and disappeared with no trace. Snapchat upholding one of its democratic obligations made that harder to do on its platform. In 2024, I assess that highly targeted text messages present a similar vulnerability, with a parallel disclosure cliff that's leaving Americans in the dark.Telecom companies like Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T should begin voluntarily disclosing open ad files of political texts with targeting data — and legislators and regulators should ensure it’s not optional for them or tech companies in the years ahead.”
While the online ads state they are paid for by “Progress 2028,” which itself is fully funded by Building America’s Future, the text messages do not have any such disclaimer.
The little information we have about text messages from Progress 2028 suggests that they are hitting their intended targets, and that the operation has been, at times, sloppy.
One of those text messages was posted by a user on r/gunpolitics with the title “Vote. Like your rights depend on it…” The message says “Kamala Harris will support a nationwide gun buy-back program [sic] will take dangerous weapons off our streets in Bloomsburg. Fewer guns = fewer tragedies. A mandatory buy-back is the only way to keep our streets safe.” The screenshot suggested that the text message had the intended effect; the person who received it said “I have a nice warm bowl of cat shit you commies can share over the Canadian border, where you belong. Fuck you…. From me and America.”
The phone number used to send that text message, 855-430-4807, was also used to send a text message to Republicans in Pennsylvania stating “We have a real opportunity with Kamala Harris to make it easier for undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses and access affordable housing.” This summer, that same phone number was sending messages to voters stating “DC Democrats are pushing a menthol ban while you’re struggling with rent, gas, and groceries,” which is a message that a PAC related to Building America’s Future has been targeting Black voters with in swing states. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that Musk has given tens of millions of dollars to the organization funding Building America’s Future and its related PACs.
"Alright, here we go. Yeah, see, sweet!" exclaimed Walz as he drove his yellow cab off a dumpster shaped like a kicker ramp for a bonus. "Dude, you're good!" Oscaio-Cortez said.
Sunday's live-stream event was among the first public Crazy Taxi sessions in modern political history. The ever-modest Walz, who no doubt felt the pressure of the moment, warned that he's "terrible" because he doesn't "know the controllers on Xbox."
"What you're trying to do is, I've got to go pick these people up," Walz said, welcoming a non-playable rider into his vehicle. "Get in, dude." As Walz remarked that the game didn't "feel quite as bad as Grand Theft," he tore through the digital streets of San Francisco, delivering a rider in less than a minute and collecting a fair of more than $200. "Oh, this is San Fran, watch this. I'm flying."
Unfortunately, perhaps thinking of sacrificing his sanity for the sake of American democracy, Walz, in all likelihood, will have "All I Want" by the Offspring stuck in his head through Election Day on November 5. He nevertheless appeared enthusiastic about the game.
"If you haven't got this, go get it, people," Walz said of 1999's Crazy Taxi, which he used to bring to the office because his wife disapproved of the game. "I brought it to the office because my wife was like, 'You need to be like a real person or whatever.'" Though he couldn't remember when exactly he got the game, Walz remarked he probably should get his story straight before "Republicans accuse me of never having a Dreamcast."
Jeri Taylor, co-creator of Star Trek: Voyager, has died. Her son, Andrew Enberg, confirmed her death to The Hollywood Reporter. Taylor died Wednesday at the assisted living facility where she resided. She was 86.
"My mother succeeded in a male-dominated industry, but she did it without being super aggressive," Enberg told the Reporter. "She did it with compassion and kindness. She was like a den mother to everyone."
Taylor's journey to the far reaches of space where no human had gone before began in Evansville, Indiana. Born in 1938 to a family of six children, Taylor stayed in the Hoosier State through college, attending Indiana University, but headed west for Cal State Northridge, where she received her master's. While in California, Taylor led an acting workshop before turning to screenwriting and finding success on television staples of the era. With credits on The Incredible Hulk, Little House On The Prairie, and Quincy, M.E., of which she directed an episode, Taylor continued to move up the television ladder.
After over a decade in the business, Taylor had a "track record as a writer, primarily, of character, people, relationships, and feelings" when a colleague from Quincy recommended she rewrite the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Suddenly Human." On the success of that script, she joined the U.S.S. Enterprise as a writer, penning the first half of "Unification," which saw Spock's return to the series, and the fan-favorite installment, "The Drumhead," the episode Taylor was most proud of. Taylor continued working for TNG throughout the remainder of the show's run and was promoted to showrunner for the show's Emmy-nominated final season.
"Jeri brought humanity and compassion to her work and to Star Trek. Her scripts include 'The Drumhead' (TNG), which remains one of Star Trek's most powerful hours," wrote Star Trek designer Michael Okuda on Instagram. "Working for Jeri Taylor was always a delight. She always welcomed ideas and suggestions, even from designers in the art department. She was thoughtful and warm, and she always made us feel like we were an important part of her team."
During the final season of The Next Generation, she and producers Rick Berman and Michael Piller began developing Voyager. The show was groundbreaking for the series and television, introducing the first female captain into the franchise. Led by the unflappable Kate Mulgrew, Voyager ran for four seasons, with Taylor taking over showrunner duties for the back half.
"Jeri Taylor was responsible, in large part, for changing my life," Mulgrew wrote on X (formerly Twitter). "She was elegant, erudite, and fiercely opinionated. She wanted Kathryn Janeway to be a significant part of her legacy and I think there is no doubt that in that endeavor she succeeded."
Taylor married twice. Her first marriage to Dick Enberg ended in divorce after 16 years. She had three children with Enberg, including Andrew, an actor who appeared on Voyager and The Next Generation as Ensign Vorik. The couple's daughter, Jennifer Jo Enberg, died of ovarian cancer in 2015. Her second husband, David Moessinger, died in 2018. Taylor is survived by her two children and a step-child from her marriage to Moessinger.
Phil Lesh has died. As a founding member of legendary rock band Grateful Dead, Lesh was a member of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, a multi-platinum artist, and a frequent entrant on lists of the greatest bass players of all time. Originally a classically trained horned player, Lesh's adoption of the bass in the 1960s helped shape the modern sound of the instrument; learning "on the job," in his own words, he helped elevate the instrument from a simple backing and rhythm element into a lead component of the band's sound. Also a successful solo artist, philanthropist, and music venue operator, Lesh died on Friday. He was 84.
A violinist and trumpet player with an interest in Avant-garde classical music and free jazz, Lesh's friendship with bluegrass banjo player Jerry Garcia was a bit of an odd fit when the two met in the world of Berkeley public radio in the 1960s. But the two became close enough that, when Garcia's band The Warlocks needed a bass player, Lesh agreed—despite never having played the bass before. Those gigs would evolve into a 30-plus-year relationship with the Dead, which saw Lesh tour around the planet, work on dozens of studio and live albums, and ultimately spend the next 60 years making music with his friends. (Sometimes quite literally, in the case of his later band Phil Lesh And His Friends.)
Although he contributed occasional vocals and songwriting duties—including credits on many of the band's biggest hits, including "Truckin'" and "Unbroken Chain," the latter of which would lend its name to a charitable foundation Lesh would later run with his wife—Lesh's primary focus was on the bass. The Dead's famous jam sessions often highlighted his work, with he and Garcia essentially trading lead duties on their long musical explorations.
Grateful Dead broke up formally in 1995, after Garcia's death, but Lesh would continue to play with his former bandmates in various arrangements for the next two decades, culminating in a five-show set of "Fare Thee Well" performances in California and Chicago in 2015. Lesh also continued to play and release music with Phil Lesh And Friends, a group made up of more than 100 contributors, drawn from former bandmates, collaborators, touring mates, and those who were just inspired by Lesh's life-long body of music. In addition to its musicianship, Lesh's later work was noted for his frequent, kind-hearted reminders to fans to sign up for organ donation. (He himself was the recipient of a liver transplant in 1998, and often thanked his donor by name during shows.) Lesh's death was confirmed on social media earlier today.
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