Someone associated with the Make America Great Again movement staged a massive — and "clearly fraudulent" — bot campaign in support of a measure that would restrict gun ownership by transgender people, according to a new report.

The Advocate reported that a flood of comments in support of a rule that transgender people list their assigned sex on their firearm paperwork were submitted during a public comment session as it came to a close in late July. Over the course of three days, public comment traffic spiked from roughly 1,000 commenters per day to over 1,800, in patterns that one anonymous data reviewer described as "clearly fraudulent."

An investigation by Assigned Media revealed that "nearly all of those comments show signs of being machine-generated." Experts who reviewed the case noted there were similarities in the comments that are "statistically impossible" to reproduce.

The report also suggested the campaign was conducted by a supporter of President Donald Trump, and caveated that pinpointing the individual may be impossible.

"Back in 2017, during Trump’s first term, millions of fake public comments — some using the identities of dead people — were submitted both for and against repealing net neutrality laws. The repeal went through regardless," according to the report.

The campaign also outraged some gun rights activists as an "attempt to scare trans people away from exercising their rights under the Second Amendment," according to the report.

“I don’t know who is doing it, although I obviously have ideas, but none of them can be substantiated,” Erin Palette, national coordinator of the LGBT+ gun group Pink Pistols, told the outlet. “Regardless, the fix is quite obviously in, although they must not have faith in their side winning if they have to resort to a figurative packing of the ballot box.”

A multi-billion-dollar natural gas export company just made its first and only federal political donation ever, and it landed squarely in the pocket of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's son-in-law.

Fairwood Peninsula Energy handed $125,000 in May to Northwoods Future PAC, a super PAC boosting Michael Alfonso's bid for Duffy's old Wisconsin congressional seat, according to FEC records reviewed by Politico. Alfonso faces a crowded primary Tuesday and has previously drawn scrutiny for scooping up transportation-industry PAC money despite having zero background in transportation policy.

The timing raises alarm because Fairwood's subsidiary, Delfin LNG, received a license in March 2025 from Duffy's own Department of Transportation to build a deepwater export terminal — a project Delfin publicly thanked Duffy for helping push through. As transportation secretary, Duffy holds the power to revoke that very license, which three environmental groups already tried and failed to challenge in court.

Public Citizen energy program director Tyson Slocum called the arrangement a clear conflict of interest, arguing Duffy should recuse himself from any further decisions touching the project. “Delfin’s entire business model relies upon some DOT approvals, because it’s an offshore terminal,” said Slocum.

Alfonso's campaign brushed off the criticism.

"Michael answers only to the people of Wisconsin's 7th District," campaign manager William Blathras said.

The pro-Alfonso super PAC also received $1 million directly from Duffy's own former campaign account. A DOT spokesperson defended the department's broader approach, framing the Delfin approval as part of President Trump's push to "unleash America's energy dominance" after what officials described as years of Biden-era obstruction of fossil fuel projects.

Neither Delfin, the PAC, nor Fairwood's CEO responded to requests for comment from Politico.

Duffy has also come under scrutiny for his taxpayer-funded "Great American Road Trip," billed as a huge reality show spectacle to spark patriotic sentiment around America's 250th anniversary, yet the festivities have come and gone with no sign of the show coming out.

The "ludicrous" rantings of President Donald Trump's officials about vaccines in the Oval Office on Monday stunned a panel on CNN.

Trump held a bill-signing ceremony for an executive order that revised the pediatric vaccine schedule to 11 vaccines from 18. During the ceremony, Trump described the bill as a “major victory for parents' rights, religious and constitutional rights, and for the gold standard science.” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also amplified the conspiracy theory that vaccines are linked to autism during the event by announcing his agency would release findings on alleged connections "as soon as they are ready." Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff, called it a "medical travesty" for children to be "pumped full of vaccines."

Experts say there is no credible evidence that vaccines cause autism.

The comments stunned the panel on CNN's "OutFront" with Erin Burnett.

"I think it's very reckless and dangerous that we have politicians, people who don't have an M.D. behind their name or a PhD, making recommendations on these vaccine schedules," Charlie Dent, a former Republican lawmaker from Pennsylvania, told Burnett. "I think it's outrageous."

David Axelrod, a former senior advisor for President Barack Obama, added that the president's comments could have a disastrous impact on childhood vaccination rates.

"It's really, really dangerous," Axelrod said. "And, listening to him, I'm having flashbacks of those press conferences we used to see during the COVID pandemic when he would hypothesize about hydroxychloroquine and bleach and other remedies as if he had some standing to make these judgments. And people actually went out and did it. So this is very dangerous."