Katie Zacharia on Thursday: a “Fabulous and Wonderful Addition.” Katie Zacharia on Friday: Out of a Job.

Good afternoon from Washington, where the midterm money printer’s going brrrr.

Elon Musk has pumped a mind-boggling $158 million—$158 million—into the US Senate race in Texas, donating the cash to a Senate Republican super PAC that then almost instantly sent it along to a group supporting Republican candidate Ken Paxton.

And across the aisle, a few Democrats just announced monster hauls. James Talarico, Paxton’s opponent in Texas, announced a record in the third quarter: $64 million. Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia announced a $33 million take, adding to his already gargantuan war chest.

In the words of Republican senator Bernie Moreno after Axios informed him of Talarico’s haul: “Oh my God, holy crap.”

This is the October 16, 2026 edition of Party Animals, a letter from the back rooms, barstools, and bacchanals of Washington, DC—with exclusive reporting, interviews, and analysis.

Their Republican opponents aren’t faring as well in raising their own cash. Paxton pulled in just $18 million in the same time period, but he’s one of many backed by the Musk and Donald Trump money cannons, and Politico reported this week that Republicans have spent an eye-popping $235 million against Talarico already. Texas politics is an expensive game. We are 18 days away from the midterms.

In this edition of Party Animals: Bret Baier first moved to Washington in the wake of 9/11, having been tasked by Fox News with reporting from outside the burning Pentagon. Now he’s the anchor of Special Report, the network’s flagship news program, and a star in Trump’s turbulent Washington. Last week I grabbed dinner with the anchorman at a Georgetown restaurant he calls his “clubhouse.” Over surf-and-turf, we discussed the evolution of Fox News, what he makes of his colleagues on the opinion side of the network, and his hot-and-cold relationship with the president.

Plus: What happens when Trump’s new press secretary falls into a pit filled with carnivorous reporters?

Also mentioned in this issue: Katie Zacharia, Sylvester Stallone, Mark Levin, Alina Habba, Ric Grenell, Elaine Godfrey, Mollie Hemingway, Brit Hume, and more.

In the Loop:

Press Enclosure

It was a big week for Katie Zacharia, Trump’s new press secretary. When she took the podium for her first briefing on Tuesday, the little-known MAGA surrogate was nervous. Her briefing lasted just a few minutes. She answered three questions and then awkwardly darted out of the room.

On Friday afternoon, Trump delivered an ominous verdict: “I said [to] Katie, ‘You know, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,’” he said, adding that she’d been treated “nastily” so far. “I said to her, ‘Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider.’”

Within minutes, The New York Times reported that Zacharia was out. She lasted five days, four if you count Columbus Day as a holiday—less than half a Scaramucci, in Trump West Wing parlance. A White House official confirmed her ouster to Party Animals.

The administration had been in damage control mode ever since her first briefing. In a statement afterward, the White House called her performance “powerful.” Communications director Steven Cheung said that she “commanded the room.” But in an edited video put out by the White House that showed her march to the podium, set to pickup-truck-commercial music, Zacharia appeared visibly fearful.

It was just the beginning. After the briefing, as she accompanied Trump to Marine One, New York Times reporter Shawn McCreesh asked Trump in which state Zacharia had passed the bar. The president turned to his new aide, who identifies as a lawyer. “When I moved to China,” she said. What? The Wall Street Journal later reported that Zacharia received a JD but didn’t pass the bar. Zacharia subsequently told McCreesh that she had misheard his question (this can happen over the din of Marine One) and thought he had asked, “Where were you after law school?”

Then, on Thursday night, Zacharia appeared on Fox News for an interview with Sean Hannity, who surprised viewers by pummeling the new Trump aide with questions over her short debut briefing and claims about her lawyerly background. After a rough week, many in the White House began asking whether Zacharia would last. But they weren’t ready to give up yet. In a statement to Party Animals on Thursday, Cheung called Zacharia a “fabulous and wonderful addition to the team.”

The Execution Will Not Be Livestreamed

Trump has announced that the firing squad execution of the Fort Hood attacker will not air publicly. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced last week (in an interview with Pizzagate conspiracist Jack Posobiec) that the Pentagon would air the execution of the man convicted of the attack that killed 13 and wounded 30 more. The idea of livestreaming the shooting of bullets into a wheelchair-bound paraplegic was quickly met with bipartisan resistance, and Trump and Vice President JD Vance backed away from it almost immediately. One poll found that a whopping 80% of Americans opposed the plan. On Thursday, Trump announced that the execution will not, in fact, be streamed. He reasoned that “very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device.”

What I'm Reading

Trump the Great: Mark Guiducci sat down with Ta-Nehisi Coates for the latest episode of Fair Game, and they discussed his brilliant and sweeping piece about Trump’s power for Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Issue. I can’t stop thinking about this part of the interview, when Coates recalled interviewing Barack Obama in the Oval Office: “I’ll never forget [Obama] telling me Trump can’t win,” Coates said. “Because Americans do not go for pessimism…. You can’t come out here and do this thing about how bad we are and how awful everything is and how awful America is. And that turned out not just to be wrong about the election, but it turned out to be wrong about the era itself.”

Lost in the couch cushions: Alina Habba, the former Trump lawyer, is accusing ex–Kennedy Center boss Ric Grenell of failing to deposit a $5.6 million donation by her billionaire husband to the arts institution. Grenell has called the allegation “absurd” and a “lie,” but the White House is apparently investigating.

Ballroom bankroll: The Washington Post obtained a list of donors funding Trump’s ballroom, a list that includes Apple, Nvidia, the Adelson family (all of which gave $25 million), and smaller donors like the Winklevoss twins and Jeff Yass ($5 million apiece). It also includes “previously undisclosed contributors who have benefited from regulatory decisions, government contracts, and, in one case, a pardon for a family member.” Not on the list: Trump, who said the ballroom would be paid for “100% by me and some friends of mine.”