Trump’s speeches take a darker tone and DHS hack exposes 40,000 workers: Morning Rundown

Trump turns to profanity and stereotypes in his rally speeches. Contact details of more than 40,000 DHS employees exposed in hack. And that’s why some consumers crave their dinner due to concerns about meat quality.

Here’s what you need to know today.

Latest twist in Trump campaign takes darker tone

President Donald Trump traveled 22 out of 28 days in October, visiting 19 states in total. His remarks lasted on average 1 hour 30 minutes. At 80, this frenetic pace is testing his endurance and his ability to present convincing arguments to preserve the slim Republican majority in Congress.

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But between messages about the economy — during which he touts numbers without justification — viewers are confronted with profanity, physical objectification and ethnic stereotyping.

For example, he pointed out Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s middle name, Mohamed, at a rally in Michigan. Upset over not winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Trump called Norway a “shithole country.” He commented on Ohio Sen. Jon Husted’s “a–” muscle and said rapper Nicki Minaj’s was “hard to miss.” At an event in South Carolina, after punches were thrown at a protester, Trump said, “It was unbelievable!” »

White House communications director Steven Cheung insists Trump “has a significant impact on the races.”

While Ronald Reagan popularized “Morning in America,” Trump’s rallies speak to a growing darkness. His closing message ahead of the election relies on the idea that jihadists and communists are hiding in plain sight – and on the ballot.

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Dive deeper into the 2026 elections:

• See the latest survey and the battlefield states in play.

• Track Early Vote Counts by age, gender and more.

• Find out how the candidates vote in competitive Senate races.

• THE races to watch in Ohio? Find out who’s running and how Republicans and Democrats fared in past elections. Then scroll to the end of the page to explore the data in other states.

• Senate What if: Explore different paths to a Republican or Democratic majority in the Senate, laid out by NBC News chief data analyst Steve Kornacki and “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker. Then create your own scenarios.

More political news:

• Trump is calling for criminal charges against Mary Peltola, the Democratic candidate in Alaska’s Senate race, after The New York Times reported that she and other Democrats worked to recruit a candidate with the same name as Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. But find another Dan Sullivan to run does not necessarily go against election lawslegal experts said.

• A federal judge refused the Trump administration’s request to separate 20,000 mail-in ballots in California from so-called non-citizens.

• For subscribers: Election prediction markets became less precise as the primaries approachednew analysis has revealed, calling into question the idea that they can predict the likely outcome of a race.

• For subscribers: Newly obtained court records reveal Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton’s ex-mother was featured in GOP rival Vivek Ramaswamy’s attack ad has shown signs of instability in recent years.

40,000 DHS employee names exposed in hack

Anti-fascist activists opposed to the Trump administration say they hacked the Department of Homeland Security and created a database containing the names and contact information of more than 40,000 agency employees. The searchable database is hosted by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a transparency nonprofit that often makes hacked government files publicly available, similar to WikiLeaks.

The group behind the attack calls itself the Department of Peace, and the alleged hackers and DDoSecrets said the release was in protest of DHS and its deportation operations.

The 40,000 agency employees whose personal information was shared represent about 15 percent of the more than 260,000 people directly employed by DHS. The data includes business contact information, which can be sensitive because DHS keeps the identities of many employees secret, including those of ICE agents.

What else to know about hacking.

Study Estimates Three-Quarters of NFL Players Who Died in 15-Year Period Suffered from CTE

An estimated 75% of football players who died between 2008 and 2023 had signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, according to a new study, which is the highest estimate to date. “I had to double-check the numbers,” said Yorghos Tripodis, study leader and director of statistics and data management at Boston University’s CTE and Alzheimer’s Disease Center, expressing shock at the results.

One of the main obstacles to studying CTE, which affects parts of the brain involved in regulating behavior and emotions, is that the disease can only be diagnosed after a person dies. Additionally, 99% of brains donated to research by NFL players showed signs of CTE, according to a previous study.

To more precisely estimate the number of players with CTE, Tripodis and his team combined data from Boston University’s UNITE Brain Bank with national death records of other former NFL players.

A closer look at the calculations.

The Milwaukee Brewers win their first World Series title

After 57 seasons of waiting, the Milwaukee Brewers are champions. They beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 of the World Series, then poured into Tropicana Field, in St. Petersburg, Fla., after closer Trevor Megill induced a soft grounder for the final out.

“It’s one of the greatest moments of my life,” Brewers shortstop Cooper Pratt said on Fox after the game. “Oh my God. It doesn’t even seem real. It’s surreal.”

Milwaukee is MLB’s smallest market and its payroll ranks just 19th out of 30 teams. But the Brewers still put together one of the most dominant postseason runs in MLB history. The team’s 12-2 playoff record is among the best since 1995, when the league expanded the playoffs to include wild-card teams.

Recap the Brewers’ path to their World Series triumph.

Staff choice: Want cheap, quality meat? Hunt your own game

Ground beef prices are near record highs and concerns about meat quality are growing. For a growing number of consumers, the solution is to hunt their own dinner.

The National Deer Association, a hunting and conservation advocacy group, says demand for its online introductory hunting course is skyrocketing, especially among urban and suburban residents in the Northeast corridor.

At the same time, local butchers say they are seeing growing demand from consumers who want beef caught or processed close to home.

“There’s a feeling in the country that commercial meat is becoming less and less attractive,” said Kyle Peterson, owner of Whitleyville Station, a meat and game processing store in Jackson County, Tennessee. “It’s, ‘Where did this beef come from, where did this pig come from, what was it fed?’”

— Rob Wileeconomic journalist

Read all about it

• The death of actor Hayden Panettiere was ruled an accident and the case is now closed, police said. The 36-year-old woman was found unresponsive on August 16 at a South Carolina apartment complex where she was staying.

• Dolores Huerta, labor and civil rights leader, co-founder of the United Farm Workers union and nicknamed “the most famous Latina to ever exist in the labor movement,” died at 96.

• The chairman of the Federal Reserve said yesterday that the central bank will devote fewer meetings to voting on interest rates and even more to broader questions about the economy.

• Progressive expert Hasan Piker continued one conservative commentator Scott Jennings for $72.5 million, claiming Jennings falsely portrayed him as someone who supported the lynching of black people.

NBC Selected: online shopping made easy

More than a million pounds of bacon and other meats have just been recalled. Here’s what you need to know to stay safe. More, how to clean wooden utensils and avoid getting shards in your food, according to cleaning experts.

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