'Tonight, FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19'

Perhaps it was only a matter of time. President Trump announced on Twitter very early this morning that he and First Lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus. He is displaying mild symptoms today as he remains quarantined in the White House and is reportedly continuing to work. The positive test set financial markets tumbling and injected fresh uncertainty into the final stretch of an already chaotic presidential campaign. Hope Hicks, a senior White House adviser who traveled with the president and a number of his family members, aides, and supporters this week, tested positive for the virus yesterday morning, setting off a scramble within the White House to determine who else might have come down with the illness.

• — All events postponed or moved to digital. Moving forward, the president's campaign events are generally suspended. He did, however, travel to New Jersey yesterday for two events with supporters after Hicks had tested positive. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said officials learned of her results as Marine One was taking off and pulled some aides off the trip, though reporters on the flight were not advised of the diagnosis. —The Wall Street Journal
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• — Also positive. Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, tested positive for the virus on Wednesday and has experienced mild symptoms, the RNC has confirmed. Republican Sen. Mike Lee also announced he has tested positive, saying in a statement today, "Unlike the test I took just a few days ago while visiting the White House, yesterday's test came back positive. On advice of the Senate attending physician, I will remain isolated for the next 10 days." —Independent
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• — In the negative column. So far, the following government officials and other notable individuals who have interacted with Trump in the past week have tested negative: Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen; former Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill; Sen. Kamala Harris; senior White House advisers Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner; and Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. —CNN

Bruni: How a diagnosis could become a lesson

"The presidency and the president are always national mirrors, in many different ways at once, and that's another moral. Trump has shown America its resentments. He has modeled its rage. Now he personifies its recklessness. How extraordinary and helpful it would be if, when he talks to the country about this, whether on television or in tweets, he reflects on that in a civic-minded way.

I'm certainly not counting on that: He may wind up having a mild, largely asymptomatic experience with the coronavirus and feeling somehow vindicated. But I'm rooting for a more mature tack. Because I don't want us to be cynical, no matter how much cause we've been given. I want us to be better." —The New York Times

MORE: The president is responsible for 37% of the world's COVID-19 misinformation, study finds —The Daily Beast

Voting faces more challenges as Election Day nears

President Trump's strategy appears to be working. Of all the election misinformation this year, false and misleading information about vote-by-mail has been the most rampant, according to Zignal Labs, a media insights company. Just how much bigger has it been? Of the 13.4 million mentions of vote-by-mail on social media; television, print, and online news; and blogs and online forums between January and September, nearly a fourth—or 3.1 million mentions—have been misinformation. And that's not the only challenge to voting this year. —The New York Times

• — Michigan. State Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a slew of charges yesterday against conservative provocateurs Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman for allegedly orchestrating a series of robocalls aimed at suppressing the vote in the November presidential election. Charges include conspiracy to commit an election law violation and using a computer to commit the crime of intimidating voters. Prosecutors allege the two political operatives used a robocall system aimed at scaring Detroit voters away from using mail-in voting ballots. —The Daily Beast
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• — Pennsylvania. The Trump campaign followed through on a threat to sue Philadelphia, filing papers in court last night over city officials preventing campaign representatives from watching people registering to vote or filling out mail-in ballots in election offices there. Trump has claimed that he can only lose the crucial battleground state if Democrats cheat, and suggested that the Democratic bastion of Philadelphia needs to be watched closely for election fraud. —ABC News
   
• — Texas. Already one of the hardest places in America to vote, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott yesterday made it even harder. He issued an executive order allowing counties to offer voters only a single place to return their ballots, and requiring officials to let poll watchers inspect the process. The order quickly drew accusations of voter suppression. The state already limits mail-in voting to those who are 65 and older or meet a few other requirements, and it has aggressively opposed lawsuits seeking to ease those restrictions amid the pandemic. —The Guardian

MORE: The attack on voting —The New York Times

QAnon-inspired ad leads to death threats

U.S. Rep. Tom Malinowski, a Democrat from New Jersey, is facing down death threats from QAnon supporters after the House Republicans' campaign arm falsely accused him of lobbying to protect sexual predators. QAnon supporters began targeting him on Tuesday, after he led a bipartisan resolution condemning the movement, which spreads a conspiracy theory that President Trump is battling a global cabal of "deep state" pedophiles.

• — QAnon believers seized on an advertisement released last month by the National Republican Congressional Committee, which falsely claimed that Malinowski, then a lobbyist for Human Rights Watch, worked to block a provision in a 2006 crime bill that would have expanded registration requirements for sex offenders.
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• — Death threats and other harassing messages have since poured in to Malinowski's Washington office. In an interview on Wednesday, he called the threats "a direct result" of the advertisement, noting that the calls his office had received cited its central accusation.
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• — "We've been warning the Republicans running this play for at least the last two or three weeks that they were playing with fire," Malinowski said. "Now the match has been lit." —The New York Times

MORE: As QAnon grew, Facebook and Twitter missed years of warning signs about the conspiracy theory's violent nature —The Washington Post

Mounk: Populism is very hard to beat

"In recent years, populists—politicians who rail against political elites and refuse to acknowledge limits on the legitimate exercise of their powers—have conquered the highest office in democratic countries around the world, including Narendra Modi in India, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines. The appeal of all three has proved surprisingly resilient. Modi resoundingly won a second term. Bolsonaro, who is still in his first term, is favored to win again in most polls. And while Duterte is ineligible to run for re-election, he has been much more popular than his predecessors. ... As countries such as Hungary and Turkey demonstrate, voters tend not to recognize their mistake until populist leaders have done serious damage to democratic institutions." —The Atlantic

Ed. Note: Yascha Mounk is an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, and a senior adviser at Protect Democracy. He is the author of "The People vs. Democracy."

MORE: European report finds waning of democracy in Poland, Hungary —Associated Press

Immigration crackdown ahead of election

The Trump Administration will slash the number of refugees allowed to resettle in the U.S. to a new low next year—permitting no more than 15,000 people fleeing war, violence, and persecution across the globe to make a new home in America. The State Department announced the cap late Wednesday, shortly after President Trump attacked refugees during a campaign speech in Minnesota, home to a significant immigrant population from Somalia.

• — Human rights groups and religious leaders denounced the decision, saying it will further undermine America's tradition of welcoming immigrants. "Our values as a nation and as people of faith demand that we take action when people's lives are in danger," said Rev. John L. McCullough, president and CEO of Church World Service, which helps refugees, immigrants, and other displaced individuals. —USA Today
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  — ICE arrests planned. The Trump Administration also is preparing a series of immigration enforcement actions targeting sanctuary cities ahead of the election. Sanctuary cities have policies in place that restrict the extent to which local law enforcement cooperate with federal immigration officials. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation, known informally as the "sanctuary op," would include arrests starting in California and eventually moving to Denver, Philadelphia, and other cities. —The Hill
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• — Wanted posters, 2020-style. The Trump Administration is considering putting up billboards of immigration violators outside sanctuary cities as well. The billboards would be put up by ICE and call attention to immigrants who have committed crimes and been released by local authorities. It's unclear what the billboards will look like and at what cost. —CNN

Scarborough: Stop doing Russia's work for them

"Trump's disinformation campaign, his refusal to accept election results, his repeated claims that the election process will be 'rigged,' and his transparent efforts to sabotage the U.S. Postal Service are just some of the ways he is providing aid and comfort to America's enemies. An aide to former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev two years ago succinctly summed up his country's view of Trump to GQ's Julia Ioffe: 'He's doing all of our work for us.'" —The Washington Post

Ed. Note: Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, hosts the MSNBC show "Morning Joe."

MORE: Trump's ex-national security advisor says president is 'aiding and abetting' Putin —Politico

Help others, you must

When 5-year-old Carver learned about the wildfires ravaging his home state of Oregon, he told his grandmother Sasha Tinning he wanted to do something to help the heroes on the front lines. So she took him shopping to buy groceries and other items they thought the firefighters might need. While at the store, Carver's eyes fixed on something in the toy aisle—a Baby Yoda doll.

• — Carver had a feeling the firefighters would need the doll more than he did, so he sent it off in a care package along with a note. "Thank you, firefighters," he wrote. "Here is a friend for you, in case you get lonely <3 Love, Carver."
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• — The firefighters now bring Baby Yoda with them everywhere and even document his travels in a Facebook group with more than 20,000 followers, so that Carver and others can see how much Baby Yoda has helped them along the way.
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• — "These firefighters are away from their children, their loved ones. This is a little pal that brings a bit of normalcy to a crazy time," the proud grandmother said. May the force be with you, Carver. —CNN

"For Your Weekend" is a once-a-week opportunity to recommend to the TOPLINE community an interesting book, podcast, documentary, or other media you've come across. Today's suggestion is from Robert D., Utah:

THE TOPLINE remains a breath of honesty and fresh air in the midst of President Trump's increasingly disturbing misinformation and rhetoric.

I recently picked up a copy of "Disloyal," the personal memoir of Michael Cohen. Even though many people may still have a negative opinion of Cohen for his vicious strong-arm tactics and rigorous defense of Donald Trump while serving as his personal attorney, I have been pleasantly surprised to find Cohen's memoir to be a very candid admission of his own foolishness and self-serving agenda while defending the president. I believe that "Disloyal" is a clear indication that Cohen has, in fact, come clean from his misdeeds and lack of integrity, which led him to perform the dirty work of Donald Trump, both before and during his presidency.

I would heartily recommend his book as a worthwhile investment of your reading time. As the author states near the start of the book, despite all of the writings done by various Trump critics/associates, Michael Cohen is really the only one with such totally intimate insight into and acquaintance with both the dishonest motives and illegal actions of President Donald J. Trump.

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.