Apr 6, 2026

Hello and welcome back to The Best & The Brightest. I’m Leigh Ann Caldwell.

President Trump gave a press conference today to a) celebrate the daring rescue of an American whose plane was shot down over Iran; and b) remind the Islamic Republic that they have until tomorrow to open the Strait of Hormuz before he blows “everything up.”

The other big news from the hour-plus event was Trump’s threat to jail an unspecified reporter for revealing before the rescue that the airman was stranded in Iran at all. “We are working hard to find the leaker,” Trump said, claiming the release of the information could have jeopardized the mission. “We will go to the media company that released it and we are going to say, national security—give it up or go to jail.”

Meanwhile, tomorrow is the runoff to replace Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in rural Georgia. Democrats don’t think they have any shot at flipping the R+19 district, but they’re hoping to overperform. In the likely event that Republican Clay Fuller wins, the House G.O.P will get ever-so-slightly more breathing room in their currently one-seat majority.

In today’s issue, my colleague Abby Livingston takes a look at the governor’s race in California, where Trump’s endorsement of Republican Steve Hilton is buoying Democrats who feared they could actually lose in the state’s top-two primary system. And I have some exclusive reporting on the ongoing quest for information about Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, or U.A.P.s—better known as U.F.O.s to those of us over 30. I also have some news and notes about the whopping $342 million that the Senate Republican super PAC plans to spend in eight Senate races.

Also mentioned in this issue: Ken Paxton, Gavin Newsom, Kirk McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, Marco Rubio, Anna Paulina Luna, Pete Hegseth, Chad Bianco, Jacob Rubashkin, Katie Porter, Tom Steyer, Eric Swalwell, Kevin McCarthy, Rob Pyers, John Cornyn, and more…

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The Cloakroom

Aliens among us: Whatever is going on, it seems like there’s genuine momentum for the government to unveil… whatever it knows. Barack Obama recently declared that aliens are “real,” Trump has ordered government agencies to release files related to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, and one of the Senate’s foremost proponents of U.A.P. transparency, Marco Rubio, now serves as both secretary of State and national security advisor. Last week, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, the chair of the House Oversight Committee Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, sent a letter to Pete Hegseth requesting dozens of alleged U.A.P. videos by April 14.

Of course, there’s still deep skepticism that the government really will reveal everything—or that it won’t punish insiders for speaking out. So the Sol Foundation, a group that advocates for disclosures related to extraterrestrial life, is currently pushing for enhanced protections for U.A.P. whistleblowers, including a “restitution fund” to support people who come forward. Kirk McConnell, a retired Senate staffer who worked on U.A.P. investigations for the Armed Services Committee, told me that while Congress is reliant on whistleblowers, they often face retaliation. The foundation also shared a new report warning that whistleblowers “can face financial ruin” and that establishing a legal defense fund was “vital to ensuring that Congress exercises its constitutionally mandated authority and oversight over executive branch UAP activities.”
Senate Republicans’ money bomb: The G.O.P.’s Senate Leadership Fund today announced an eye-popping $342 million investment in eight Senate races, five of them for seats currently held by a Republican. The target list included $79 million in Ohio, $71 million in North Carolina, and even $15 million in red Alaska—a sign that the party recognizes they’ll have to spread the money around to hold their majority.

One state that wasn’t listed: Texas, where Sen. John Cornyn remains locked in a bitter runoff with A.G. Ken Paxton. Trump still hasn’t endorsed either despite announcing more than a month ago that his nod was imminent—and as I reported last week, he’s now expected to remain on the sidelines. S.L.F. is considering spending on Cornyn’s behalf but hasn’t decided how much or when, according to a person familiar with the situation. Devoting more money to an ostensibly safe state like Texas would be “painful,” this person said—exactly what Republicans feared could happen with Democrat James Talarico on the ballot and Paxton still in the mix.

And now, the main event…

Did Trump Just Bail Out Newsom?

Democrats were headed for a potential jungle primary disaster in California, with nearly a dozen candidates splitting the gubernatorial vote to anoint Gavin Newsom’s successor. Then Trump waded into the race…

Abby Livingston

Until recently, California Democrats were staring down a very real but unthinkable possibility: losing their first statewide race since the Schwarzenegger era. It’s not that California has moved right—Democrats control the governor’s mansion, both U.S. Senate seats, and much of the House delegation, and maintain supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature. Rather, the problem was the state’s top-two (or “jungle”) primary system.

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A surfeit of Democratic gubernatorial candidates (as many as 24 by last count) risked splintering the party’s vote. If the two leading Republicans in the race, Fox News contributor Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, managed to take the top two spots, one of them would go on to win the governorship.

That unlikely path to victory was only possible if neither Republican consolidated support and shut the other out—which is why California Republicans had urged Trump not to endorse. Not only could they humiliate top Democrats like Katie Porter, Tom Steyer, and Eric Swalwell, but an all-Republican gubernatorial race would have done wonders to boost beleaguered party members statewide. Plus, an eventual Republican victory would complicate Gavin Newsom’s presidential prospects—as California Republican operative Rob Stutzman told me, “Gavin trying to run for president with a Republican unearthing everything from the last eight years would have been a real liability.”

But Trump blew up that vision shortly after midnight. His endorsement of Hilton on Truth Social almost certainly assures a smooth retirement for Nancy Pelosi, a triumphant send-off for Newsom, and victory for a party that the president has described as “radical left lunatic Democrats” in a state he says has “gone to hell.” Jacob Rubashkin, a political analyst at Inside Elections, laid out the dismal new forecast for Republicans. “[If] Hilton can consolidate Republican support and pull away from Bianco, it’ll secure him a spot in the general election, but almost certainly ensure that at least one Democrat finishes ahead of Bianco for the second-place spot,” he told me. “And that Democrat will be the heavy favorite in November.” A Democratic consultant offered a more succinct assessment of Trump’s endorsement: “I think it may save us. I was getting a little nervous.”

It wouldn’t be the first time Trump has screwed over his own party in the state. Most prominently, his demand for a Texas gerrymander led to a revenge California redraw that may end the careers of as many as five G.O.P. incumbents there. And three years ago, Trump refused to save then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from the revolt that cost him his gavel—and cost California Republicans their most consequential modern leader, whose presence kept G.O.P. money and professional staff from fleeing the state. There’s also Trump’s campaign against vote-by-mail, which is how nearly all ballots are cast in the Golden State. “He has screwed this up in every way imaginable by suppressing G.O.P. turnout by being against vote by mail,” said Stutzman. Then he “let the Democrats off the hook of their big dilemma.”

“Leave It to Team Trump…”

The endorsement offers a financial benefit for Democrats, too. “Trump’s endorsement of Hilton likely frees up tens of millions of dollars for Democratic groups who would have otherwise had to spend heavily to elevate one of the two leading G.O.P. gubernatorial candidates to avoid a Democratic lockout,” posted California-based political researcher Rob Pyers. Furthermore, the likelihood of a Republican-on-Democrat general election means Democrats can avoid costly Dem-on-Dem violence in the race, freeing up money to be deployed to other races and states.

The situation is shaping up to be the exact opposite of what’s occurring in Texas, where Trump has refused to endorse in the Senate primary. But the dynamic is similar in one important way: In both cases, Trump is screwing over state-level members of his own party. Most Republicans in Texas believe the race could have ended with a John Cornyn victory on March 3 had Trump endorsed—but now they’re facing down an expensive intra-party runoff and the chance, however remote, that Democrat James Talarico could actually flip the Senate seat. With that and Trump’s redistricting crusade, the state’s donor class is showing signs of distress.

In both states, Trump has given Democrats an unexpected boost—and in California, he may have just proved to be their savior. As a Democratic consultant working on the race told me today, “Leave it to Team Trump to walk right into the wrong decision.”

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