Endorsement: Eleni Kounalakis for state treasurer

• October 9, 2026

The California state treasurer serves as the state’s top asset manager, banker, and financier. It isn’t the most glamorous job, but it demands the most qualified candidate available.

In this race, that person is Eleni Kounalakis.

Eleni Kounalakis sees the office as a logical next step after two terms as lieutenant governor, through which she served on various state boards and so has a varied perspective on the needs of state government. She brings applicable political experience as a state elected official and former U.S. ambassador and two decades of private experience from her time working for AKT Development, which was founded by her real estate magnate father. She also holds a master’s in business administration from UC Berkeley, so she has solid conceptual foundations useful to someone overseeing the state treasurer’s office.

If elected, she should stand behind her vow to “use the office as a bully pulpit” to “speak out clearly and often for fiscal discipline and responsible budgeting. The specific indicators that I will monitor include the structural budget gap, debt-service-to-revenue ratio, reserve levels, revenue volatility, and credit rating outlooks. Together, these metrics provide a clear view of the state’s fiscal health and whether we are maintaining the confidence of investors and taxpayers.”

Given her development background, she could also be helpful in her capacity overseeing the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee and the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, which work to finance affordable housing developments. “I believe the [state treasurer’s office] can go one step further and partner directly with local governments to move projects from approval to construction faster — because nothing drives up the cost of housing construction more than red tape and time delays,” she told this newspaper.

To be sure, we have our disagreements with her. Serving on the University of California Board of Regents, she supported the well-intended but foolish decision to scrap consideration of SAT and ACT tests in admissions. On the other hand, as treasurer she’d be overseeing some financial aspects of education systems, not education policies, so it’s not directly relevant.

More pertinent to her position given that the treasurer serves on the state’s pension boards, this year, she supported Assembly Bill 1383, legislation that would’ve allowed cities to boost pensions for public safety employees. AB 1383 was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last month. In her interview with our editorial board, though, she was reasonable, and emphasized that on the pension front she didn’t favor mandating what cities couldn’t afford.

We also considered her challenger, Republican Jennifer Hawks, who served the state well by preventing David Serpa from making it to the general election. To be sure Serpa, an admirer of Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, would’ve made this an even easier call to make, so credit to Hawks for giving reasonable Republicans an option to vote for.

Hawks, now retired, had an admirable career working for various businesses before spending the last 21 years of her working life at Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton, a private Bay Area Catholic school, where she worked as an executive assistant. Hawks conceded she needed to study up more on bonds, but emphasized her ability to work with people. She told us she would make a good team with Herb Morgan if he’s elected controller and would get to know everyone in the treasurer’s office.

That’s probably all true and we certainly align more on her conservative instincts. But Kounalakis is the best suited for the role. She has the mix of business, political and governance experience this role demands. Given her private sector background, she also has just enough grounding in the real world that not many statewide Democratic officials seem to have.

If one wishes to cast a protest vote against the Democrats, sure, vote for Hawks. If you want to vote for the person best qualified for the job, it’s Kounalakis.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County scores and player stats for Thursday, Oct. 8

• October 9, 2026

Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribe now

Scores and stats from Orange County games on Thursday, Oct. 8

Click here for details about sending your team’s scores and stats to the Register.

The deadline for submitting information is 10:45 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 p.m. Saturday.

GIRLS FLAG FOOTBALL

SEA VIEW LEAGUE

Tesoro 37, San Clemente 26

NONLEAGUE

Ontario Christian 26, Fairmont Prep 6

GIRLS GOLF

EMPIRE LEAGUE

Garden Grove 242, Ocean View 278

SUNSET LEAGUE

Corona del Mar 208, Edison 220

SEA VIEW LEAGUE

Capistrano Valley 270, El Toro 279

TRINITY LEAGUE

Orange Lutheran 185, JSerra 217

BOYS WATER POLO

COAST LEAGUE

Western 16, Anaheim 5

Los Amigos 15, Savanna 2

GROVE LEAGUE

Santa Ana Valley 23, Loara 6

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

University 10, Northwood 9

SOUTH COAST LEAGUE

San Juan Hills 13, Aliso Niguel 11

SEA VIEW LEAGUE

Dana Hills 19, El Toro 4

Trabuco Hills 11, Mission Viejo 9

NONLEAGUE

Sonora 11, Ocean View 8

Buena 9, Mater Dei 8

West Covina 17, Segerstrom 6

Troy 16, Valencia 10

GIRLS TENNIS

CRESTVIEW LEAGUE

Foothill 10, Troy 8

EMPIRE LEAGUE

Garden Grove 13, Kennedy 5

FREEWAY LEAGUE

Sunny Hills 12, Cypress 6

Pacifica/GG 10, Esperanza 8

ORANGE LEAGUE

Anaheim 16, Loara 2

Orange 11, Santa Ana Valley 7

ORANGE COAST LEAGUE

Calvary Chapel/SA 18, Ocean View 0

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

Pacifica Christian/OC 11, St. Margaret’s 7

SAN JOAQUIN LEAGUE

Fairmont Prep 15, Capistrano Valley Christian 3

SEA VIEW LEAGUE

Capistrano Valley 10, Dana Hills 8

SUNSET LEAGUE

Huntington Beach 14, Fountain Valley 4

TRINITY LEAGUE

JSerra 16, Mater Dei 2

NONLEAGUE

Oxford Academy 11, Whitney 7

​ Orange County Register 

UCLA: Nearly 15,000 deported from Southern California in Trump immmigration sweep

• October 9, 2026

Nearly 15,000 people arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Southern California in 2025 and 2026 were eventually deported, according to a study published Thursday, Oct. 8 by UCLA and the UC Berkeley School of Law.

At the height of the agency’s surge in June and July 2025, 75% of those arrested were deported, researchers said.

The study looked at arrests, detentions and deportations of non-citizens within the Los Angeles ICE field office’s area of responsibility, which covers the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura.

The findings also show that the city of Los Angeles had by far the most apprehensions, with 33% of all “at-large” arrests in the region occurring there.

“The extraordinary impact of the surge is now clear,” Graeme Blair, co-director of the project and a political science professor at UCLA, said in a statement. “Nearly 15,000 people have been deported from the region. Now, we can also quantify what immigrant communities here have felt since the surge began in the summer of 2025: that enforcement never stopped. Over 1,000 non-citizens were arrested just in July 2026.

“Increasingly, non-citizens across the country who had no reason to expect they could be deported have been targeted, and it was folks in the Los Angeles region who bore the brunt of these new enforcement priorities first,” Blair said. “These are people immigration judges have not ordered removed, many with legitimate grounds to challenge their removals.”

While ICE, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, had previously relied heavily on taking custody of people already held in jails and prisons, a defining feature of immigration enforcement since 2025 has been a sharp increase in at-large arrests — those carried out in neighborhoods and communities and at ICE check-ins rather than custodial settings.

“DHS leaders made Los Angeles a testing ground in June 2025 for the new at-large arrest strategy, sending immigration agents out into communities, Home Depot parking lots and immigration courthouses, and to make arrests at regular ICE check-ins,” Blair said. “Those patterns continued throughout fall 2025. Again, this summer, we saw that the numbers increased as ICE continues to try to hit daily arrest targets.”

Key takeaways from the study by the UCLA-based Deportation Data Project and UC Berkeley:

— 15,000 deported. ICE arrests across a seven-county region in 2025 and 2026 have led to nearly 15,000 deportations;

— Arrests move into communities. At-large arrests surged, increasingly targeting people without criminal convictions or final deportation orders; and

— Swift deportations, few releases. Of those arrested from January 2025 through May 2026, 62% were deported within 60 days, while just 7% were released from detention within 60 days.

The status of people arrested during the surge changed as well. At the surge’s peak, in June 2025, arrests of people who had no final order of removal from an immigration court were nearly 1,400% higher than 2024 levels, while arrests of non-citizens with no criminal conviction increased by more than 3,400%. Neither group had been targeted by previous administrations, the study determined.

Suicidal ICE detainees are routinely put in solitary confinement. Experts say that’s inhumane

Adelanto ICE medical staff repeatedly failed detainee who died, internal report says

‘A culture of fear:’ The lingering trauma after ICE detains a loved one

​ Orange County Register 

Bucky Irving, Jalon Daniels lead Bucs past sloppy Cowboys for 1st win

• October 9, 2026

By SCHUYLER DIXON AP Pro Football Writer

ARLINGTON, Texas — Bucky Irving ran for a career-high 165 yards, including a 72-yard run to set up the touchdown that put his team ahead for good while scoring twice himself, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Dallas Cowboys, 24-16, on Thursday night for their first win of the season.

Jalon Daniels threw a touchdown pass to Irving in the first half while directing a turnover-free offense amid several Dallas miscues in the just the second start for the undrafted rookie.

Daniels, who was 19 of 25 for 189 yards, is filling in for Baker Mayfield, who is expected to be sidelined for at least one more game with a dislocated thumb on his throwing hand.

Irving had 21 carries and a 7.9-yard average while scoring on a 5-yard pass and a 1-yard plunge as the Bucs (1-4) finally found some footing in a season that started with expectations of winning the NFC South.

Dak Prescott led a 99-yard drive and threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to George Pickens in the fourth quarter before his second interception off a tipped pass helped Tampa Bay clinch the win in the final two minutes.

The Cowboys (2-3) continued an up-and-down start to the season, this time with an offense that was at times as sloppy as the defense has been in both seasons under Coach Brian Schottenheimer.

After Irving’s long run on the first play of the second half was followed by receiver Emeka Egbuka’s 14-yard touchdown run on a jet sweep, Prescott threw his first interception and the Dallas defense left Tez Johnson wide open on a 64-yard grab that led to Irving’s 1-yard plunge for a 21-10 lead.

KaVontae Turpin’s fumble on the subsequent kickoff led to a Tampa Bay field goal, but only after the Bucs converted a third-and-21 from the Dallas 48-yard line with Daniels’ 21-yard pass to Egbuka.

The Cowboys were missing one of the pieces they recently added to try to fix a porous defense. Cornerback Joey Porter Jr. was a late scratch in what was supposed to be his second appearance since arriving in a trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers last week.

Prescott was 24 of 42 for 316 yards in his first two-interception game of the season – his first picks since the opener.

BUCS HAVE LONG AND QUICK TD DRIVES

Irving’s 5-yard touchdown catch capped a 15-play, 73-yard drive that ran the final 10:44 off the clock in the first quarter and had a final count of 10:58. Then his 72-yard run was the first of two plays on an 86-yard drive that took exactly 1 minute.

INJURIES

Cowboys defensive back Alijah Clark exited with a hamstring injury in the first half and didn’t return.

More to come on this story.

UP NEXT

The Buccaneers are at home against Pittsburgh on Oct. 18.

The Cowboys play at Green Bay on Oct. 18.

​ Orange County Register 

Dodgers might be heading into NLCS rematch with even better pitching this time

• October 9, 2026

ATLANTA — Which team has won the most regular-season games in MLB over the past three seasons?

Nope, it’s not the one going for a three-peat.

The Milwaukee Brewers have won 293 games over the past three seasons (two more than the Dodgers), including major-league highs of 97 last year and 103 this year (the franchise’s first 100-win season). They haven’t parlayed those regular-season wins into a successful October yet.

Last year, they were thoroughly dominated in the National League Championship Series, swept in four games by the Dodgers. The Brewers scored just four runs in the four games and batted a miserable .118 against Dodgers pitching in the series. Dodgers starters allowed just two of those runs in 28⅔ innings – Blake Snell allowed one hit in eight scoreless innings, Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed three in a complete-game win.

As the two teams prepare for a rematch in this year’s NLCS beginning on Sunday night in Milwaukee, there is bad news for the Brewers – this Dodgers pitching staff might be even better than last year’s.

Andrew Friedman certainly thinks so. Heading into the NL Division Series with the Atlanta Braves, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations called it “the best and deepest pitching staff we’ve ever had going into October.”

It starts with the starters. Three of the four that so throttled the Brewers last year – Snell, Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow – return with two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal replacing Shohei Ohtani.

The bigger difference is in the bullpen, where the Dodgers are in a much better place than they were a year ago.

Roki Sasaki went from disappointing starter, shelved for much of the season, to postseason closer last October because the Dodgers’ bullpen options were so thin. Tanner Scott wasn’t even on the postseason roster after his own disappointing season and health issues. Right-handers Evan Phillips and Brock Stewart were recovering from surgeries and didn’t throw a pitch last October.

All four of those pitchers are options now for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts in a bullpen that has rediscovered life with a dedicated closer. Edwin Diaz has found his way back into that role after a lost regular season.

“He’s had a tough season,” Roberts said. “He’s been hurt. He was having trouble with his delivery and went on a long rehab assignment. But to get him pitching this way – that’s the reason why we got him. The last two nights, that’s the reason why we acquired a guy like Edwin Diaz. He’s one of the great closers in the game. For him to be pitching his best right now, that’s what you hope for, and I give him a lot of credit.”

Friedman echoed the praise for Diaz’s willingness to work his way back.

“He would say, ‘Hey, I’m ready to come back,’” Friedman said. “And it was like, ‘Hey, we need to see more. We need to see this really lock in.’ And at every turn, he said, ‘Whatever you guys need … anytime you want me to pitch, I’ll be ready.’

“It was never a question of the heartbeat and his ability to handle these moments. It was about just getting him right mechanically and getting back to the stuff that we’ve all seen over the years.”

Diaz recorded saves in Games 3 and 4 against the Atlanta Braves – his first saves in back-to-back games since the first 10 days of this season. He was one of the players shouted out by name during Roberts’ post-game, pre-champagne address to the team following the series-clinching win on Wednesday night.

“I feel great. I’m happy what I’m doing right now,” Diaz said. “I put in a lot of work this season. I went to the IL with elbow surgery. Came back, didn’t pitch the way everybody was expecting. Went back to IL with my neck. Then I started working on those things (an adjustment in his arm angle primarily). Those things paid off at the end of the day.

“The team trusts me. I think that was the most important thing for me, the team trusts me. … And the last two nights it’s been amazing. That’s why I came here – to win games and close games like this one (NLDS Game 4). So I’m really happy right now.”

Add in hard-throwing Edgardo Henriquez, who emerged this season, and stalwart left-hander Alex Vesia and Roberts has more branches on his ‘trust tree’ than last year – so much so that Vesia was asked about comparisons to the group of self-described bullpen ‘dawgs’ who came through so often during the run to the 2024 World Series title.

“I like it,” Vesia said of the comparison. “Once the starter comes out, we’re chopping it up, man. I mean, it’s either one-plus (innings) or up-downs, one or two outs. Like the last two games (of the NLDS), I got hot multiple times, ready to go for whatever. And that’s how it is. I think that going back to that ’24 team, we were all doing that. It didn’t matter the roles. The lanes, man, they were good. They were cut out for us.

“Last year was a little bit different. So yeah, I think Dave’s got a lot of weapons. And I like it.”

The Dodgers head into their NLCS rematch with the Brewers despite hitting just .203 as a team in the four NLDS games and going 1 for 16 with runners in scoring position – because their pitching staff held the Braves to a .145 average and 1 for 23 with runners in scoring position.

“Let’s be real – our postseason is going to rest on our pitching. It always does. It always will,” veteran third baseman Max Muncy said during the postgame celebration Wednesday night. “You’re not going to go out there and get 15 hits a night in the postseason. You’re just not. So if you can limit the amount of runs the other team is getting, you’re going to do a pretty good job. Our pitching staff was unbelievable this series. For us to continue on, it’s going to rely on the pitching staff.”

​ Orange County Register 

Suspect charged nearly 15 years after death of 80-year-old Anaheim man

• October 9, 2026

In December 2011, 80-year-old Il Jae Kim was found dead in his Anaheim apartment. Nearly 15 years later, detectives have taken a 34-year-old man into custody on suspicion of Kim’s murder.

Santa Ana man Mike Nunez was charged by the District Attorney’s office on Thursday, Oct. 8 with murder, along with an enhanced charge of personally using a deadly weapon, according to court records.

Nunez allegedly killed Kim in his apartment at 225 S. Western Ave., where Anaheim police found Kim dead on Dec. 15, 2011, according to Anaheim police. At the time, family members told police that they feared for Kim’s safety, prompting a welfare check at his apartment.

Following the discovery of the body, Anaheim detectives collected evidence and pursued various leads, but the case went cold.

Detectives began to investigate the case again in March 2026 with the help of the Orange County Crime Lab, a forensic division that is part of the sheriff’s department and works with all law enforcement agencies in the county.

Harnessing advances in forensic DNA technology, investigators reexamined the evidence and ultimately identified Nunez as the murder suspect, according to Anaheim police.

The investigation remains ongoing, so details about what pieces of evidence were key in tracking down Nunez are not being released at this time, Anaheim police Sgt. Eric Anderson said.

Anaheim police investigators arrested Nunez on Tuesday, Oct. 6 in Santa Ana, and he is being held at the Orange County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail.

Nunez is scheduled to appear in court for his arraignment on Thursday, Oct. 29.

​ Orange County Register 

New Yorkers get into heated confrontation with ICE agents who nearly hit 5-year-old boy in shooting

• October 9, 2026

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot and wounded a man in a car on a bustling New York City street Thursday afternoon, narrowly missing a 5-year-old boy who was seated in the vehicle’s backseat and sparking a heated confrontation between the feds and outraged citizens, officials said.

ICE agents opened fire on the silver Honda Civic at about 4 p.m. on Marble Hill Ave. near W. 225th St. in the Bronx. The shooting victim was in the SUV when he was hit, according to sources.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who showed up at the scene, was told by NYPD detectives that “there was a toddler in the car.”

“I’m just trying to locate the child,” he said. “What about this is about public safety?”

Mayor Mamdani confirmed on X that a child was in the car when ICE started firing.

“Early reports indicate agents surrounded him and a 5-year-old child in his car before firing multiple rounds,” Mamdani said. “We believe the child was physically unharmed.

“This is an unconscionable and incredibly serious situation,” Mamdani said. “I have called the President; when we speak I will demand that he ends all ICE enforcement actions in our city. I will not stand by while ICE agents terrorize our communities.”

Fruit vendor Cesar Gomez was down the block from the shooting when he heard a “zoom and the car crashed.”

“It was too many shots. Boom! Boom! Boom!” Gomez, 67, recalled, watching as responding officers pulled a horrified boy from the car. “(The victim) was bleeding from the back by his neck. They didn’t wait they put him in their own unmarked car and took him to the hospital.”

Gomez said that masked ICE agents were armed with assault weapons.

“It wasn’t a pistol,” he said. “It was a long gun like an AK-47. They were masked. Everything was covered. It was really crazy.”

ICE was looking for a person with a prior robbery arrest and an open drug case at the time of the shooting, law enforcement sources told WABC Eyewitness News.

A video reviewed by the Daily News shows NYPD officers carrying the wounded man from the silver SUV and putting him into the back of a black car, which sped off.

A man with a federal badge around his neck sporting an assault rifle was in the middle of the street, asking witnesses taking video of the scene to back away, the video showed.

The man who was shot was taken to an area hospital and is “conscious and receiving medical attention,” the NYPD said on X.

The NYPD “was not involved in the incident,” the tweet said.

Outraged Bronx residents flocked to the corner, chanting “Murderers!” “F— ICE!” and “ICE out of the Bronx!”

During one heated exchange, more than a dozen people grabbed and pinned a masked ICE agent against a wall when he got too close to the police tape lining the scene.

“Take the mask of P—-!” the residents screamed.

NYPD officers swooped in and rescued the agent, pulling him back behind the tape as federal agents created a blockade line.

The NYPD referred all additional questions about the incident to the feds.

But Assemblyman Manny De Los Santos (D-Manhattan), who showed up at the scene, was told that ICE agents weren’t cooperating with the NYPD.

“The ICE agents are over there with rifles and not cooperating with the NYPD detectives,” he said.

“ICE needs to get the f— out of here,” Williams seethed. “Nobody wants it.”

“Everybody said that this would happen,” he said of the shooting.

NYPD cops ultimately had to escort the ICE agents away from the scene as a growing mob cursed at the federal agents from the other side of the police tape.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The New York Immigration Coalition said that more than two dozen people have been shot by federal immigration officers in the last year across the country.

“ICE’s violent tactics are a clear danger to all New Yorkers, as today’s shooting in a residential neighborhood demonstrates,” Murad Awawdeh, the president of New York Immigration Coalition, said in a statement. “This incident is another reminder of the unchecked, rampant violence ICE has been spreading throughout our communities.”

“We demand an immediate investigation into the shooting, the release of the body camera footage, and accountability for any ICE agents who used excessive force,” Awawdeh said. “We must abolish ICE and strengthen the safety of all New Yorkers.”

​ Orange County Register 

Trump on the stump: Extreme lines, vague threats

• October 9, 2026

By John T. Bennett, CQ-Roll Call

The remark from President Donald Trump came out of nowhere as he was speaking at a defense manufacturing facility under a beaming sun in Baltimore on Tuesday.

“Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought, who is fantastic, he’s done a job,” Trump said, delivering shout-outs while standing in front of a naval combat ship. “We have some big surprises coming up in another few weeks, right, Russ?”

The commander in chief was at Charm City’s Sparrows Point industrial area to announce a $6.6 billion investment in Navy submarine manufacturing, a project that could boost Maryland GOP Rep. Andy Harris’ reelection bid. His nearby 1st District could benefit from the jobs a new defense production factory will deliver.

“He’s going to be one of the very important people in the history of our country, in my opinion,” Trump added of Vought, who also was an architect of Project 2025, conservatives’ hardline playbook for his second term. “He’s got some great things happening.”

It was the latest example of how Trump’s midterms barnstorming tour has featured sometimes extreme and often vague statements.

Top congressional and other Democrats were outraged by Trump saying during a Monday rally for Nebraska Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts in Grand Island that Iran could go ahead and target two major West Coast U.S. cities.

“They can take out a city. Let them take, let it, let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego,” Trump said of Iranian leaders. “This is a very small price to pay. And it’s going to be over very soon.”

Democrats focused on the outlandish statement from a sitting U.S. president.

“It’s sickening to hear the President of the United States dismiss American lives so callously,” House Democratic Whip Katherine M. Clark of Massachusetts wrote on X. “Every Republican candidate should be called on to denounce this.”

Democrats in California’s congressional delegation issued a joint statement calling on Trump to apologize: “Upon taking office, the President swears to uphold the Constitution and to protect us from our enemies. … As members of the California Democratic Congressional Delegation, we call on President Trump to apologize to the over 16 million Americans who live in the Los Angeles and San Diego metropolitan areas and all Americans who expect more out of our President.”

House Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a statement that the comment shows the president was “so deranged.”

“It is truly revolting how much ill will he has for the Citizens he is supposed to protect,” Thompson said. “It is clear Trump is completely panicked about the midterm elections and his Iran War disaster and wants to escalate tensions to sow election chaos. The silence from Republicans is deafening.”

Trump twice on Tuesday waved off reporters’ questions about what exactly he meant. He added what seemed to be a clean-up line Wednesday night, repeating the ominous scenario, but then adding: “We’re not going to let that happen. We protect our cities.”

‘Not-so-nice way’

Another potentially ominous statement came during the Baltimore event.

Iran was “the bully of the Middle East and not so much the bully anymore, but we have to finish up. And it’s only a question of which way. Do we want to do it the nice way or the not-so-nice way?” Trump said. “And pretty soon you’ll find out.”

Trump has floated “annihilating” the Islamic Republic as a way to end the conflict. The White House on Thursday responded to a query about whether the president’s threats are narrowly aimed at Iranian leaders or also the country’s population of 89.2 million by referring a reporter back to the same presidential comments.

At every stop, Trump receives usually tepid applause from crowds of loyalists when he contends that prices — from the cost of a gallon of gasoline to groceries to most everyday and leisure items — are swiftly falling.

At a rally Wednesday in San Antonio for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Senate bid, Trump said: “You watch those oil prices come down like a rock and watch everything — everything else is coming down. Oil is coming down.”

The independent fact-checking organization PolitiFact calls Trump’s prices claim “mostly false.”

“Through August, overall, prices increased by about 4.7 percent since Trump began his second term, and groceries have risen by about 3.4%. By mid-September, gasoline was up 41% from January 2025, when Trump began his second term, a spike driven by the Iran war. Fuel oil and natural gas have risen as well. Electricity was up by more than 8%,” PolitiFact wrote in a recent analysis. “Coffee, ground beef and chicken breast were also up during this period. Car prices, eggs, bacon and bread prices were down.”

‘Daydreaming’

Trump also has used campaign stops to claim he will send out $5,000 payments to millions of Americans if Republicans retain their House and Senate majorities.

But so far the president and his staff have brushed off questions about how to get such an expensive package through Congress, nor explained how his pledge to ensure each dollar is spent at home would be enforced.

“Congress would have to approve. And even if Republicans controlled the 120th Congress, the only way would be to pass legislation, I assume through reconciliation,” G. William Hoagland, a former senior GOP Senate leadership aide now with the Bipartisan Policy Center, said in a Wednesday email. “But adding another $2-plus trillion to the deficit, given growing concerns over the national debt, I would chalk up as ‘daydreaming’ and out of touch with reality.”

Going long

Trump has delivered his three-longest speeches of his second term this year.

Trump debuted his $5,000 pledge on Sept. 9 with primetime remarks at a GOP convention in Dallas, when he spoke for 1 hour, 44 minutes and 49 seconds. That was his second-longest speech of the year, surpassed only by his State of the Union address on Feb. 24, which ran for 1 hour, 47 minutes, 49 seconds.

Meanwhile, Trump’s San Antonio rally lasted 1 hour, 44 minutes and 13 seconds, the third longest of his second term, according to Roll Call’s Factba.se.

And there are more rallies planned before Election Day.

©2026 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. Visit at rollcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register