The previous time he visited my home state, in August 2025, he ordered the US military to roll out a red carpet for Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
asserted
he → visit → Putin
The two billionaire oligarchs chummed it up and posed for cameras, then talked about the war in Ukraine and achieved no formal ceasefire and no peace agreement.
asserted
oligarchs → chum → ceasefire
I was curious to see what Trump would do this time.
asserted
Trump → see → what
If our economy is so good, as he says it is, and if Republicans are so superior to Democrats, as he says they are, then why fly 3,400 miles to hold a rally for Dan Sullivan, Alaska’s junior Republican senator running for his third term?
asserted
they → say → term
That’s why.
asserted
That → ’ → ?
Control of the US Senate for the next two years could come down to Alaska.
uncertain
Control → come → Alaska
A week ago, Trump made a desperate move.
asserted
Trump → make → move
He directed the US Department of Justice to file a lawsuit against the state of Alaska because a second Dan Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher from the coastal fishing town of Petersburg, is also on the ballot.
asserted
Sullivan → direct → ballot
On Wednesday, the plot thickened when the New York Times reported that back in the summer of 2025, Democratic operatives began to engineer ways to get a spoiler on the Alaska ballot, according to interviews with Peltola’s former campaign manager and longtime aide, Elisa Rios, who was fired in a staff shake-up in August.
uncertain
who → thicken → August
Other sources included texts.
asserted
sources → include → texts
Rios said Peltola was not directly involved in the operation but was aware of it.
asserted
Peltola → say → it
Last week, Rios contacted the Times and retracted all statements “made regarding the 2026 Alaska Senate Race.”
asserted
Rios → contact → Race
She added: “I am not willing to be a source for any story in any capacity.”
asserted
I → add → capacity
A spokesperson for the Democratic Senate campaign arm told the Guardian: “Republicans have a long history of recruiting and propping up candidates in an attempt to boost their own campaigns.”
asserted
Republicans → tell → campaigns
It seeks to block a Peltola win “pending an investigation to determine whether votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan were meant to be cast for Senator Sullivan”.
asserted
votes → seek → Sullivan
Meanwhile, the justice department has reportedly issued subpoenas over the matter.
uncertain
department → issue → matter
Four months ago, the Alaska supreme court approved both Sullivans on the ballot.
asserted
court → approve → ballot
The Alaska division of elections lists the Petersburg candidate as “Sullivan, Daniel J Jr” without a party affiliation, and the senator, Dan S Sullivan, as the incumbent Republican.
asserted
division → list → Republican
“Attention Alaska,” wrote Libby Bakalar, the municipal attorney for Bethel and a former assistant attorney general.
asserted
Bakalar → write → Bethel
“Donald Trump is abusing the judicial system in an attempt to personally appoint your next United States senator.
asserted
Trump → abuse → senator
Don’t let him.”
asserted
him → let → ?
(Following the Times story, she told KTOO: “Not a single illegal thing happened here.”)
Which brings us back to the rally on 13 October.
asserted
Which → follow → October
The Wasilla sports center – not so large but easy to fill – thrummed with excitement as Trump and Sullivan shared the stage and appeared to have a good time, playing to all the flags and phones and red hats.
asserted
Trump → fill → flags
Sullivan said nothing about Alaska’s federal employees who lost their jobs due to government cuts, many of them highly educated scientists.
asserted
many → say → them
He also made no appeal to the many Alaskans in remote villages who struggle with some of the highest prices in the state’s history: home heating fuel at $7-$9/gallon, milk at $25-$30/gallon.
asserted
who → make → 25-$30
And if that weren’t enough, he said nothing about the estimated 30,000 Alaskans who have lost, or will soon lose, their medical coverage.
asserted
who → say → coverage
Instead, Sullivan stood with the man responsible for those problems and told the crowd what he had said to Trump privately: “Mr President, I just really want to thank you for all that you’re doing for Alaska.”
Really?
asserted
you → stand → Alaska
Was I missing something?
asserted
I → miss → something
I’ve lived in Alaska for nearly 50 years – have been charged by bears, surrounded by caribou, charmed by whales and inspired by glaciers.
asserted
I → live → glaciers
I can’t imagine my heart and soul thriving anywhere else.
asserted
heart → imagine → ?
A young ranger with the US National Park Service back in the 1970s, I came north for adventure and beauty and found both.
asserted
I → come → both
The wild America I was born too late to see down south, awaited me up north.
asserted
I → bear → me
Blame it on Henry David Thoreau, Edward Abbey and Rachel Carson, American authors who convinced me that nothing is more valuable than wildness, curiosity and a sense of wonder.
asserted
nothing → blame → wonder
As such, it’s not bears that frighten me.
asserted
that → ’ → me
It’s men like Sullivan and Trump who can hear a dollar bill fall on the tundra.
asserted
bill → ’ → tundra
Men who get excited by 1) drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 2) reducing the western Brooks Range to a massive mining district and reaching those mines by slicing a cut-and-fill road through Gates of the Arctic national park, and 3) repealing the US Forest Service’s Roadless Rule that will enable clearcut logging in the Tongass national forest – a temperate rainforest, one of the rarest biomes on Earth – where massive, ancient trees and a thick understory store more carbon than any other national forest in the country.
asserted
trees → excite → country
Of the roughly 1.6 million responses, more than 99% opposed the repeal.
asserted
% → oppose → repeal
Americans appreciate the life-giving value of their trees.
asserted
Americans → appreciate → trees
Trump and Sullivan make a destructive bromance.
asserted
Trump → make → bromance
Sullivan has voted with Trump’s stated positions more than 95% of the time, including, more recently, 14 votes against resolutions aimed at curtailing the president’s military authority or against removing US forces from Iran.
asserted
Sullivan → vote → Iran
…and 14 more, not listed.
The Aporia
