Politics
Trump fixates on sewage, a favored talking point, in fight with Wes Moore
President Donald Trump didn’t just take his feud with Maryland governor and possible 2028 Democratic presidential hopeful Wes Moore into the gutter this week. He turned to the toilet.
In a series of social media posts Monday and Tuesday, Trump blasted Moore for what he deemed an inept response to a sewage spill that sent hundreds of millions of gallons of raw waste into the Potomac River beginning four weeks ago.
“There is a massive Ecological Disaster unfolding in the Potomac River as a result of the Gross Mismanagement of Local Democrat Leaders, particularly, Governor Wes Moore, of Maryland,” Trump wrote Tuesday on Truth Social, saying that it’s time for the federal government to step in. “I cannot allow incompetent Local ‘Leadership’ to turn the River in the Heart of Washington into a Disaster Zone.”
On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president is worried that the Potomac River will carry the stench of excrement during the July 4 celebration of the country’s semiquincentennial that Trump has been planning since returning to office.
“He is worried about that. Which is why the federal government wants to fix it, and we hope that the local authorities will cooperate with us in doing so,” Leavitt said in response to a reporter’s question during the White House press briefing.
It’s not the first time Trump has turned poop into a political weapon. In fact, the president who complains regularly about low-flow toilet standards has a long list of scatological gripes that have become one of the few areas where his administration is seeking additional environmental protections as it aggressively rolls back dozens of climate, air and water pollution rules.
It was on the sewage-fouled beaches of San Diego that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin marked his first Earth Day as the nation’s top environmental regulator. The administration has put concerted effort into pressuring Mexico to do more to stem the tide of raw sewage pollution flowing across the border from Tijuana, which for years has dirtied beaches and sickened residents and Navy SEALs who train nearby.
And during Trump’s first term, it was San Francisco’s long-running sewer overflow problem that EPA targeted for enforcement after the president groused about the city’s large homeless population — a move that California leaders saw as politically charged.
Now as Trump feuds with Moore, the nation’s only Black governor, less than two weeks after excluding him from a White House dinner for the National Governor’s Association, the image of millions of gallons of raw sewage flowing into the nation’s capital offered another level of political punch altogether. The situation comes as Moore is pushing to redraw Maryland’s congressional lines to counter Trump’s red-state redistricting.
“It’s a great political issue. Nobody wants sewage in the water — that is true of Democrats and Republicans,” said Mae Stevens, a water infrastructure lobbyist who previously served as an environment staffer for Democratic former Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin.
Asked about the president’s longstanding interest in sewage pollution, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said the administration would not allow “the failures of local and state Democrats to diminish the quality of life for millions of Americans.”
The source of the spill is the Potomac Interceptor sewer line, which partially collapsed Jan. 19 near Cabin John, Maryland, amid frigid winter temperatures, releasing nearly 200 million gallons of untreated wastewater in the first five days. Operating since constructed in 1964, the 54-mile line carries wastewater from D.C. suburbs as far away as Dulles Airport to a treatment plant in southern Washington.
DC Water, the utility that operates the line, has been making emergency repairs to the broken interceptor, but the effort will take four to six more weeks. After that, crews will need to get to work on an already-planned rehabilitation project, which could take a further nine or 10 months, DC Water spokesperson Sherri Lewis said.
Though the spill captured the nation’s attention only this week, local environmentalists have been sounding the alarm from the beginning.
“It’s certainly a big ecological problem and an incredible threat to public health to have raw sewage splashing around and on shorelines,” said Hedrick Belin, president of the Potomac Conservancy, a conservation group. “We don’t need partisan politics getting in the way. This crisis is just too serious.”
Officials in Maryland, which is technically responsible for the Potomac River, responded “within hours” of the initial spill, said Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for Moore. But the interceptor falls under EPA’s regulatory purview, according to the governor’s office, accusing the agency that’s lost thousands of staff under Trump of failing to take action.
“For the last four weeks, the Trump Administration has failed to act, shirking its responsibility and putting people’s health at risk,” Moussa said in a statement. “Notably, the president’s own EPA explicitly refused to participate in the major legislative hearing about the cleanup last Friday.”
Zeldin shot back at that accusation on Tuesday afternoon.
“At no point in the lead up to today had DC Water or the state of Maryland requested EPA to take over their responsibilities, and EPA has continued to offer its full support to state and local leaders from the onset,” Zeldin said in a post on X.
Funding woes and ‘really poor infrastructure’
Water experts say the sewage spill is a symptom of a larger problem: Aging sewer pipes and water lines nationwide are in desperate need of repairs, but cash-strapped local governments are struggling to pay for them.
The Trump administration has repeatedly pushed to slash federal funding for water projects. Last year, the White House proposed a 90 percent cut to EPA’s State Revolving Funds, the water sector’s largest source of federal dollars. The Senate ultimately rejected the cut in a spending bill that Trump signed into law last month.
But extra water funding from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law is set to run out this fall, and experts warn of a coming funding cliff at the same time as extreme weather and AI data centers put more pressure on existing pipes, sewers and treatment plants.
“We’ve got really poor infrastructure. A lot of these pipes, especially on the East Coast, were built decades ago,” said Jon Mueller, a visiting associate law professor at the University of Maryland. “I think it’s unfortunate that it takes a disaster like this to get people to focus on the problem.”
It’s not yet clear how much the Potomac spill will cost, but the broader rehabilitation project for the interceptor sewer system’s “most vulnerable sections” is $625 million, said DC Water spokesperson Sherri Lewis. The utility has been coordinating with EPA, she added.
“Just last week, we hosted the Assistant Administrator for Water for a tour of the site and briefing on the project and the progress made to date,” Lewis said in a statement.
Although officials say the worst of the spill has been contained and that it has not impacted drinking water supplies, 243.5 million gallons of sewage overflows have been reported thus far.
Environmental advocates are worried about long-term implications for the river, which feeds into the Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary and the subject of decades of cleanup efforts.
Earlier this month, University of Maryland researchers recorded extremely high concentrations of bacteria, including a strain that resists antibiotics, tied to the spill. By springtime, that could render parts of the water unsafe for boating, canoeing and fishing.
Dean Naujoks, who leads the environmental group Potomac Riverkeeper, said he hopes Trump’s involvement could improve what he described as a “botched” cleanup process by DC Water. But he cast blame as well on EPA, describing the agency as essentially missing in action.
“We can’t get a hold of [EPA]. I have no idea what they’re doing,” Naujoks said. “The squabble between Trump and Gov. Moore has focused more of the attention on accountability, which I think is a good thing.”
Top Democrats are using 2026 as a launching pad for potential 2028 presidential runs.
From progressive Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to the more moderate Pete Buttigieg and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Democrats have sought to shape their party by endorsing in contested primaries this year. They’ve traveled the country to raise their own profiles and elevate candidates they see as the future of the party.
Their strategies have not always been successful — but they have been revealing: Some endorsed against incumbents based on generational or ideological differences. Some weighed in early to give candidates credence, while others waited until the last minute to help them close out the race. And some have focused on purple districts and other competitive races that could determine control of Congress in the fall.
“If you’re thinking about running for president, you need allies,” said Mike Nellis, a Democratic strategist whose firm works with House and Senate campaigns across the country. “The more that you’re out there, trying to get people elected and making a meaningful difference, voters are going to remember that.”
Appearing with candidates on the campaign trail is an opportunity for potential 2028 candidates to create social media buzz, Nellis noted. Traveling gives them opportunities to connect with donors and elected officials across the country who might be helpful for a future presidential run and pressure test how messages work in various parts of the country. For those not up for an election of their own this year, it’s also a way to stay relevant.
Some potential presidential candidates have been particularly prolific, while others have been more cautious or stuck to their home states, according to a Blue Light News review of endorsements in House, Senate and gubernatorial races. And a handful mostly stayed out of this year’s primaries.
The most prolific endorsers
Few members of Congress threw out as many endorsements as Khanna.
The California representative, who has said he is “seriously considering” running for president in 2028, endorsed in more than a dozen races, often serving as one of the earliest national backers of progressive candidates such as Kat Abughazaleh in Illinois’ 9th District and Analilia Mejia in New Jersey’s 11th District. Abughazaleh lost her race, while Mejia won.
Khanna also backed left-wing candidates that other national progressives shied away from, most notably democratic socialist state Rep. Francesca Hong in the Wisconsin gubernatorial race.
His record is mixed. Hong lost and former Maine Senate Democratic nominee Graham Platner, who Khanna stood by despite a series of controversies, had to drop out after winning a primary but facing an allegation of sexual assault, which he denies — at which point Khanna, like many others, withdrew his endorsement.
Khanna told Blue Light News he likes “endorsing early when an insurgent candidate is a bit of a longshot because that is when they need the endorsement most.” He looks for candidates who support Medicare for All and taxing billionaires and are opposed to foreign wars.
“My philosophy is to give those who are outsiders and have to scrape their way in — like I had to — a fair shot,” he said in a text message.
Ocasio-Cortez also endorsed a large slate of progressive candidates, but she’s been more selective than Khanna — a difference in approach that’s sparked some infighting within the Bernie Sanders wing of the progressive movement.
Critics have argued she’s played it too safe. But her selectivity has also meant she avoided high-profile stumbles.
Ocasio-Cortez has positioned herself as more of a closer this cycle. In California’s 22nd District, a battleground in the Central Valley, Khanna endorsed progressive professor Randy Villegas last September, while Ocasio-Cortez dropped her endorsement in May — about a month before the primary. Villegas ultimately defeated a moderate lawmaker backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and is among the progressives who will now try to knock off an incumbent Republican in November.
Ocasio-Cortez actively campaigned for progressives in several contested battleground primaries, rallying with Sam Forstag in Montana and alongside Sanders with Abdul El-Sayed, who narrowly won the Democratic Senate nomination in Michigan.
She recently threw her support behind Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who faces a primary challenge from Rep. Seth Moulton next week.
The other most frequent endorser among potential Democratic 2028ers this cycle played in a different lane. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a moderate, has been active on the campaign trail, visiting most presidential battleground states and endorsing in key Senate primaries, including Rep. Angie Craig in Minnesota’s Democratic Senate primary — which she lost to progressive Peggy Flanagan — and state Rep. Josh Turek in Iowa’s Democratic Senate primary, which he won.
Buttigieg, who has said he is “more inclined than not” to run for president again in 2028, has also notched endorsement wins with Rebecca Cooke in Wisconsin’s battleground 3rd District and former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin in Connecticut, who defeated incumbent Rep. John Larson earlier this month.
Most governors stuck close to home
Governors eyeing White House runs kept their endorsements closer to home, largely trying to play kingmaker within state lines as they face their own reelection fights.
The local focus allows them to flex their influence while avoiding criticism for nationalizing their own states’ politics. And they’ve campaigned aggressively for their chosen candidates — political power plays that not only strengthen their standing on home turf but could also serve as springboards for national bids.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker pumped $10 million into a super PAC supporting his lieutenant governor, Juliana Stratton, in the contentious Senate primary to replace retiring Sen. Dick Durbin, and appeared alongside her on the campaign trail. He described the race as “personal” to him; Stratton won by 7 points.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro expended significant political capital in one of Democrats’ top House targets in his state, helping recruit longtime ally and firefighter union chief Bob Brooks into the race against GOP Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in the state’s swingy 7th District and then working to elevate him out of a four-way primary. Shapiro fundraised for Brooks, cut an ad for him and joined him on the stump ahead of Election Day; Brooks won by nearly 20 points.
Shapiro was also one of a handful of Democratic attorneys-general-turned-governors who backed Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser in his gubernatorial primary against Sen. Michael Bennet. Weiser won by 14 points.
In Maryland, Gov. Wes Moore backed state Del. Adrian Boafo in the crowded race to replace retiring Rep. Steny Hoyer and boosted Rep. April McClain Delaney in her bruising primary against former Rep. David Trone — including recording a robocall on her behalf. An adviser to Moore said the governor had preexisting relationships with both candidates he endorsed, and that he prioritizes local and in-state races as he seeks to make endorsement decisions that will benefit his constituents.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also stuck to her state, only really playing in Michigan’s high-profile Senate race. She endorsed Rep. Haley Stevens in the final stretch of the race, although she wasn’t active on the campaign trail in the same way Pritzker was for Stratton or Shapiro for Brooks.
Disagreements among moderates
Even among candidates occupying a more centrist lane heading into 2028, there was room for disagreement.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), a former national security official, endorsed retired Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam, a moderate in Michigan’s 7th district, which she previously represented. Several Democrats had hoped she’d back former foreign service officer Bridget Brink, a fellow moderate — and as they split the centrist vote, progressive William Lawrence ascended to the nomination in the toss-up district instead.
A person familiar with Slotkin’s thinking, granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal deliberations, said that she connected better with Maasdam and saw him as a stronger general election candidate.
The person also acknowledged that Slotkin’s decision to wait to issue her endorsement until three weeks before the primary didn’t leave enough time for voters and party leaders to coalesce around Maasdam.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) rolled out a slate of endorsements of veteran candidates, mostly for the general election, but has backed a range of other Democrats in primaries. That includes DCCC-backed political novice Marlene Galan-Woods in his home state, only for her to lose the primary in Arizona’s 1st District.
“As Navy combat veteran and former NASA astronaut, Mark Kelly knows the country is best served by leaders who represent their communities and bring a range of different backgrounds and experiences to the job. It’s why he’s endorsed candidates in competitive primaries and campaigned for Democrats up and down the ballot,” Kelly spokesperson Marisol Samayoa said.
In next week’s primary in New Hampshire’s 1st District, Kelly is supporting Stefany Shaheen, the daughter of his Senate colleague Jeanne Shaheen, praising her as a “fearless leader” who would stand up to President Donald Trump.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill also went on a recent endorsement spree focused on military veterans. But she’s backing Maura Sullivan in the race against Shaheen next week, along with Rep. Seth Moulton in his primary against Sen. Ed Markey, who has gotten backing from progressives including Ocasio-Cortez.
“The fight isn’t moderates versus DSA candidates,” Sherrill told POLITICO earlier this month. “The fight is if we are going to have strong people in the Democratic Party that are going to actually make change to make people’s lives better, or people who you can just expect more of the same.”
The ones who (mostly) sat it out
Not every potential presidential candidate was eager to endorse this cycle.
Even after working to redraw boundaries in his home state to create more safely blue seats, California Gov. Gavin Newsom stayed out of the federal races — and the contest to succeed him. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear endorsed after primaries in his home state were complete. Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who is considering his own White House bid, also eschewed endorsements.
And Kamala Harris declined to weigh in on the majority of competitive primaries because of her high profile, according to a person familiar with her thinking who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. The exceptions were “based on the closeness” of the former vice president’s relationships with the people she did endorse.
Harris recorded a robocall for Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Texas Senate primary before Crockett eventually lost to James Talarico. She backed Del. Stacey Plaskett ahead of her U.S. Virgin Islands’ gubernatorial primary victory earlier this month. She has also endorsed Dan Koh in next week’s primary for Massachusetts’ 6th District.
All three candidates have close ties to Harris. Crockett served as co-chair of Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign, Plaskett endorsed Harris when she first ran for president in the 2020 primary, and Koh is a former Biden administration official.
Iowa’s last Democrat on how he can win in Trump country
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Alaska GOP Sen. Dan S. Sullivan can’t shake his same-name challenger.
Retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan punched a ticket out of the state’s top-four, all-party primary early Wednesday morning. He could now play spoiler in a high-stakes Senate clash between the Republican senator and former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola that could help swing control of the upper chamber.
Republicans fought and failed to keep Dan J. Sullivan off the primary ballot, arguing he was a Democratic plant designed to boost Peltola. Both Dan J. Sullivan and Peltola’s campaign have denied any coordination.
The senator’s allies have already taken steps to mitigate the second Sullivan’s potential vote siphoning, in some cases running ads using the senator’s middle initial to help differentiate between the same-named candidates.
Supporters of the state’s ranked-choice voting system, which kicks in for the general election, argue the process helps curtail the spoiler effect. But the presence of other candidates could still skew the results of the battleground race. Outside groups flooded the primary with more than $2 million to boost myriad fringe candidates — and could do so again ahead of November.
It’s not smooth sailing for Peltola, either, as she wages an uphill battle to flip a red seat in a state President Donald Trump won by 13 percentage points in 2024. She recently replaced her campaign manager in a staffing shakeup ahead of the primary, among other internal moves.
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