💰Costco Wants a Tariff Refund and We Want to Help You Build Community👯

NNN is teaming up with Red Wine and Blue to help you meet people in your community. Plus: Costco sues Trump. New photos from Epstein's island are as weird as you'd think. Hegseth's shaky defense.

Four of the never-before-seen photos of Epstein’s island released Wednesday by the House Oversight Committee.

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Before we get to the news…

So many of you write in asking me what you can do in these strange times to feel less isolated, more connected and engaged. When I’ve held NNN meet ups in cities around the country you’ve told me you want to connect with people outside your bubble. For a long time, I wasn’t sure how I could help you make that happen.

Until now.

We’re teaming up with Red Wine and Blue, an organization that helps people form groups in their area, meet in person, and get things done. RWB has a national platform that makes it easy to start and run a local group with guidance and support. You can use it to gather with NNN members (and others) near you.

To understand how this came together and learn more about Red Wine and Blue, check out my conversation with RWB founder Katie Paris. She launched RWB when she felt the need for in-person community in Ohio. What started as a local project grew into something national. Her platform now hosts more than half a million people and offers regular Zoom events with great speakers.

Watch here:

NNN x RWB:

For now, this is a pilot we’re offering to paid subscribers. You’ll get free access to RWB’s tools and resources to launch or join a group. The only cost is your time. You don’t need leadership experience or organizational skills. RWB makes it low pressure and simple to execute.

Interested in being a pilot group leader? You won’t be doing it alone.

Group leaders receive:

• A simple setup process and ongoing support

• Access to RWB’s TroubleNation organizing platform

• Help recruiting new members (your group can appear on RWB’s national map)

• Monthly meetups with other group leaders

• Ready-to-use agendas, guides, and event toolkits

• Turnkey event opportunities (author talks, screenings, conversations)

• Leadership training (live + on-demand)

• A dedicated group webpage to manage events and communication

• Personal support from the RWB team

Plus, for RWB | NNN pilot leaders:

• Quarterly “NNN Community Connects” with Jessica Yellin

• A private space in the RWB app to collaborate with fellow pilot leaders

Want to join a group but not lead one?

We have a sign-up form for people who are interested but don’t want to start or lead a group.

🌟Scroll down to the end of the newsletter to learn more and sign up.🌟

In today’s newsletter: Costco is asking Trump for its money back. Never-before-seen video from Epstein’s island. What’s RFK up to now? Turns out Signalgate was worse than we thought. Hegseth claims he didn’t bother waiting to see the second boat strike that experts think could be a war crime (but still supports it). Trump’s list of pardons grows longer. Why an election victory has Republicans worried. And more.

Here Are Your Headlines:

• Epstein Island: House Democrats released never-before-seen photos and videos from Jeffrey Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The images include what appears to be a dentist’s chair in a room with masks on the walls, a phone with speed-dial buttons listing first names like Darren, Rich, Mike and Larry, and a blackboard scribbled with words like “power,” “deception,” and “plots.” The files came from the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Justice, which may release more. Meanwhile, the Justice Department has until December 19 to release its criminal investigative files under legislation Congress passed last month. Attorney General Pam Bondi says she’ll comply but a bipartisan group in Congress has asked Bondi to brief them on any obstacles she may be encountering in the move to release those documents. Republicans on the committee criticized Democrats for releasing the photos, which they call “selective information,” and said they’re reviewing roughly 5,000 documents from JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank that they’ll make public “soon.”

• Mixed Signals: Signalgate was bad, very bad. That’s according to a classified Inspector General report sent to Congress Tuesday. The IG reportedly concluded that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared classified battlefield information in an unsecure Signal chat in violation of his department’s policies. Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who spoke to reporters about the report prior to its release, said the IG found Hegseth’s actions could have endangered the mission, the lives of US personnel, and national security. Hegseth shared updates about imminent military strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen in the chat that mistakenly included the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic. The unclassified IG report is set to be released on Thursday.

• Fog Horn: Hegseth’s account of the September 2nd boat strike — the one experts say could be a war crime — continues to evolve. On Tuesday Hegseth said that he “didn’t stick around” to watch the second deadly strike and therefore “didn’t personally see” the two survivors of the first strike, who were reportedly killed by the second. He explained that the boat “was exploded in fire and smoke. You can’t see it. This is called the fog of war.” And he again placed responsibility for the second strike on Adm. Frank M. Bradley, but said “it was the right call.” So to recap: Hegseth didn’t see it, wasn’t there, bears no responsibility, and also it was the right call. Trump backed Hegseth and Bradley despite admitting he “wouldn’t have wanted … a second strike” and said his administration will “start doing strikes on land” against anyone sending drugs “into our country.”

  • About that Fog: One retired officer in the Australian army pointed out, “If you say you did not have good visibility of the target … how did you know it presented a threat and why did you engage it?” The Pentagon’s own Law of War Manual forbids attacking those “wounded, sick, or shipwrecked” at sea. Fog of war is “not the kind of excuse you would use to absolve a military decision maker from responsibility,” an international security expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said.

  • Et Tu, Brutus? This story is penetrating the right wing media bubble. Conservative judge and former Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitano told far-right outlet Newsmax that Hegseth and “everyone” involved in the second strike “should be prosecuted for a war crime for killing these two people.”

• Give Our Money Back: Costco has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, asking the court for a “full refund” for Trump’s tariffs. On Monday it filed to join almost two dozen “materially identical” lawsuits filed by other US companies, including Revlon, Bumble Bee, and Kawasaki. The lawsuits argue that Congress, not the president, has the authority to impose tariffs; Costco’s suit also notes that Trump has “threatened, modified, suspended, and reimposed” tariffs, “with the markets gyrating in response.” Lower courts have already ruled that most of Trump’s tariffs are illegal; the Supreme Court seemed skeptical about them during a hearing in November, and is expected to rule on the issue in the near future. According to CBP figures, tariffs have cost US importers roughly $90 billion as of late September.

  • Consumer Power: MAGA figures say they are boycotting Costco; Trump critics are signing up for membership and posting their new cards on social media.

• Another Convict Freed: Trump on Wednesday pardoned Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX). Cuellar and his wife were charged in 2024 with accepting $600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities — an oil and gas company owned by the government of Azerbaijan and a bank headquartered in Mexico City — in return for influencing US policy. Trump claimed Cuellar was targeted by Biden for “speaking the TRUTH” about “Open Borders.” Cuellar thanked Trump “for his tremendous leadership,” but said he will not switch parties. “I’m a good old conservative Democrat,” he said. He filed for re-election on Wednesday. The seat has become redder as a result of Texas’ redistricting.

  • Rules For Thee, Not For Me: Trump has now pardoned or commuted the sentences of 12 lawmakers, 10 Republicans and 2 Democrats, all bar Cuellar convicted of corruption, bribery and lying to the FBI. A former pardons attorney, whom Trump fired, says Trump’s pardons cost Americans over $1 billion in funds the guilty were meant to pay their victims. Meanwhile, thousands of people are locked up every year simply for their failure to pay fines, fees, or other court costs — i.e., debtors’ jail. So the lesson is… make your grift big?

• Pesky Facts: Wall Street is doing fine. Main Street, not so much. According to the payrolls processing firm ADP, the US economy lost 32,000 jobs in November, the largest drop since March, 2023. Small businesses got hit hardest: Firms with fewer than 50 employees lost a total of 120,000 jobs, offsetting gains by larger firms. The last time ADP’s small-business employment dropped this fast was in October 2020, at the peak of the pandemic.

• Shot in the Foot: The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is set to meet later this week to discuss potential changes to the country’s childhood vaccination schedule, including whether to stop giving all newborns the hepatitis B vaccine. Childhood vaccines have, over the last three decades, prevented over 500 million cases of illness and 1.1 million deaths. Experts are worried that the members of the panel will act against childhood vaccinations, putting millions of kids in danger. Health Secretary and vaccine skeptic RFK Jr replaced the panel’s members in June, picking several new members who have expressed anti-vaccine rhetoric; on Monday he fired the chair of the panel, replacing him with another vaccine critic who has argued vaccines are ineffective. Remember, during his confirmation hearing RFK promised not to make vaccines less accessible.

• Warning Signs: A last-minute, multi-million-dollar GOP ad blast helped Republican candidate Matt Van Epps win a special election in Tennessee on Tuesday, preserving the GOP’s narrow majority in the House. But Van Epps won by only nine points, far less than Trump’s 22-point victory margin in the district a year ago. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called that loss of support “dangerous.” This is the latest in a series of Democratic overperformances in deep red districts, which has Republican lawmakers and strategists worried. One House Republican told Politico the result in Tennessee “is a sign that 2026 is going to be a bi*** of an election cycle.”

• Puff, Daddy: Netflix released its four-part special on the rise and fall of Sean “Diddy” Combs on Tuesday, despite a cease-and-desist from the convicted musician’s lawyers accusing Netflix of using “stolen footage” for a “shameful hit piece.” The documentary series includes new details on the murders of legendary rappers Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., to which Diddy has been linked. In the documentary, singer Aubrey O’Day reveals she may have been sexually assaulted by Diddy; she also said Diddy sent her sexually explicit emails and that she “was fired for not participating sexually.”

• “Garbage” Politics: ICE is planning a targeted operation against Somali immigrants in Minnesota. Trump on Tuesday said Somalian immigrants “contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country.” He called them “garbage” and pledged to remove those under “temporary protected status.” That accounts for just 700 of the 80-90,000 Somalis in Minnesota. Most are legal residents or US citizens. The mayor of Minneapolis warned immigration officials are “gonna get the wrong people” and will inevitably end up “taking away the rights of American citizens.” Somalia is one of the 19 countries whose migrants’ green cards will be reviewed.

  • Murky Business: Multiple people with ties to the Somali community have been implicated in massive welfare fraud schemes. The conservative Manhattan Institute alleged in November that some of the stolen money was funneled to a terror group based in Somalia called Al Shabaab, prompting a Treasury investigation. This claim has circulated for years without being proven. A former US Attorney said those involved “were looking to get rich, not fund overseas terrorism.” Governor Tim Walz insisted state officials “are doing everything we can” to catch and imprison perpetrators, and noted that “to demonize an entire community on the actions of a few” is “lazy.” And one former investigator noted that while many of the perpetrators are Somali, many of the victims are Somali, too.

    • Sticks and Stones: Trump accused Walz of being “seriously retarded.” Walz responded saying that Trump is “not a good human being” and uses slurs “to distract from his incompetency.” Indiana state senator Michael Bohacek, whose daughter has Down syndrome, responded to Trump’s language by announcing he’ll vote against Trump’s gerrymandered map. “Words have consequences,” he said.

• Travel Ban: The Trump administration on Tuesday announced it will pause applications for green cards, citizenship, or asylum from 19 “countries of concern” listed in a previous travel ban. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on Monday announced she is pushing to expand that travel ban to “every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.” Presumably that doesn’t include the criminals Trump has pardoned and freed from prison. Noem wasn’t any more specific, but the administration is expected to widen the travel ban to roughly 30 countries.

• City That Care Forgot: DHS on Wednesday launched a new immigration enforcement operation in New Orleans. Unlike many other states, Louisiana’s Republican governor actually requested National Guard troops be sent, citing “elevated violent crime rates” in New Orleans. Fact check: Violent crime in New Orleans has sharply dropped in recent years and the city is on track to have fewer homicides than any year in almost a half-century.

Ready to start organizing your community? Read on for more information about Red Wine and Blue, including instructions on how to sign up or express interest.