U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a retired Navy combat pilot and former NASA astronaut, used a post on X Monday evening to catalog what he described as a pattern of abnormal conduct running through the Trump administration, pointing to state-controlled media, foreign gifts, the sale of presidential pardons, and enormous sums of money flowing to President Donald Trump personally while his portrait hangs from federal buildings across Washington. The post, published at 6:59 p.m. on Sept. 21, 2026, arrived on the same day the White House launched a new streaming platform branded “Trump TV” and amid a monthslong string of controversies over the president’s business dealings, his family’s cryptocurrency ventures, and his handling of the press.
Kelly’s post read in full:
“State run media, state owned enterprises, prosecuting political opponents, gifts from foreign countries, selling pardons, massive amounts of money flowing into the President’s bank account, and banners with his head plastered on government buildings. NONE OF THIS IS NORMAL.”
The senator did not name a single triggering event, instead compiling a list of grievances that Democrats have raised individually over the course of Trump’s second term. Taken together, the post amounts to Kelly’s broadest public indictment yet of what he and other Democrats have repeatedly called an “authoritarian playbook” being carried out across multiple fronts of the federal government simultaneously.
“State Run Media” and the Launch of “Trump TV”
Kelly’s reference to “state run media” lands the same day the White House unveiled “Trump TV,” a 24/7 platform streaming administration events on the White House’s YouTube channel, days after Trump revoked press credentials for reporters with CNN, MS NOW and Politico. The channel marked its first broadcast by streaming Trump’s July 3 address at Mount Rushmore, under the title “TRUMP TV: The Essentials Station,” and followed it with footage from his 2025 inauguration.
Trump barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House access over the weekend, writing on social media that he was banning the outlets “as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” and warning that other outlets could follow. The move prompted the White House press pool — including CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN and Fox — to decline to cover Trump’s Monday meeting with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and CNN, Politico and MS NOW have since sued to try to restore their access.
Kelly addressed the press ban directly in a CNN interview last week, telling anchor Erin Burnett, “I don’t think there are any limits to where this president will go.”
“Selling Pardons” and a Booming Clemency Business
Kelly’s charge that the administration is “selling pardons” echoes a wave of congressional scrutiny that has built for much of 2026. In May, Sen. Peter Welch and Reps. Dave Min and Raul Ruiz sent letters to 17 pardon recipients asking whether they received clemency through a “pay-to-play” scheme or improper political influence.
In August, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin released a staff report titled “Pardons, Inc.: How Trump and His Clemency-for-Cash Racket Let White-Collar Criminals and International Drug Dealers Walk Free and Dodge Billions in Restitution Owed to Their Victims,” which detailed what Democrats characterized as a sprawling pay-to-play clemency industry operating around the White House. Min and Welch separately pressed the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney over reports that clemency-seekers bypassed the standard review process and instead sought “direct access” to the president through intermediaries and financial contributions.
A CBS “60 Minutes” investigation this month identified two Trump loyalists, Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl, who were recorded on hidden camera describing a business built around soliciting payments from people seeking presidential pardons.
“Gifts From Foreign Countries” — the Qatari Jet
Kelly’s mention of “gifts from foreign countries” recalls one of the highest-profile controversies of Trump’s second term: the Qatari royal family’s offer of a Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet, valued at roughly $400 million, for use as a temporary Air Force One. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth formally accepted the jet on behalf of the Pentagon, with the administration maintaining the transfer complied with federal law.
Democrats invoked the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause, which bars federal officeholders from accepting gifts from foreign governments without congressional consent. Washington University law professor Kathleen Clark called the jet “an illegal, unconstitutional payoff from a foreign government to the president at a scale we actually have never seen.” Trump has said the jet will ultimately be transferred to the foundation overseeing his future presidential library once he leaves office, a plan critics argue reveals the gift’s true beneficiary.
“Massive Amounts of Money Flowing Into the President’s Bank Account”
The senator’s reference to money “flowing into the President’s bank account” points to the rapid growth of the Trump family’s personal fortune during his second term, much of it tied to cryptocurrency. Trump’s financial disclosures showed more than $1 billion in crypto-related earnings in a single year, including roughly $515 million from World Liberty Financial token sales and tens of millions more from equity sales tied to the venture. Former White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter said Trump “stands alone” among executive branch officials in the scale of his financial conflicts of interest.
In August, federal regulators granted a Trump family-affiliated crypto entity, World Liberty Trust Company, conditional approval for a national trust bank charter — an arrangement ABC News described as the first time in U.S. history that a sitting president’s family business has been granted bank status. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly has repeatedly said the president’s assets are held in a trust managed by his children and that “there are no conflicts of interest.”
“Banners With His Head Plastered on Government Buildings”
Kelly’s closing line refers to a series of oversized banners bearing Trump’s portrait that have been installed on federal buildings throughout 2026, beginning with the Department of Labor and Department of Agriculture and later extending to the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior. The DOJ banner, unveiled in February and paired with the slogan “Make America Safe Again,” drew particular criticism given the department’s tradition of operating independently from the White House. Time magazine has cataloged the broader trend of Trump’s name and image appearing across federal programs and properties, from TrumpRx.gov to the renamed U.S. Institute of Peace building.
Kelly’s Broader Pattern of Warnings
Monday’s post is consistent with a pattern Kelly has followed for nearly a year, repeatedly framing Trump administration actions as departures from democratic norms. In late February, Kelly and Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin held a joint press conference after learning that federal prosecutors had unsuccessfully sought a grand jury indictment against them over a video in which the two, along with four other lawmakers with military and intelligence backgrounds, reminded service members they can refuse illegal orders. “This is straight from the authoritarian playbook, but it didn’t happen in Russia or China,” Kelly said at the time. “This happened here.”
Kelly also said the episode amounted to “the great lengths that Donald Trump and his administration will go to abuse power in order to silence and intimidate anyone who disagrees with them.” In a January statement responding to a Pentagon effort to censure or demote him over the same video, Kelly said, “Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump don’t get to decide what Americans in this country get to say about their government.”
Political Backdrop
The senator’s warnings have coincided with growing speculation about his own political future. Kelly told BBC Newsnight he would “seriously consider” a 2028 presidential run, citing what he called “seriously challenging times,” and has said he and his wife, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, now receive death threats “on a weekly basis” following Trump’s public comments about the lawmakers in the illegal-orders video.
A federal judge later ruled that the Pentagon’s attempt to strip Kelly of his military retirement status and demote him constituted unconstitutional retaliation against protected speech, blocking the administration’s effort to punish him through the chain of command.
Republican and White House Response
Neither the White House nor Trump had responded directly to Kelly’s Monday post as of publication. The administration has consistently rejected accusations of corruption or conflicts of interest tied to its handling of pardons, foreign gifts and the Trump family’s business ventures, with spokeswoman Anna Kelly maintaining that the president “only acts in the best interests of the American public.” On the press credentials dispute specifically, the White House has not detailed how the ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico will be enforced, though Trump has said additional outlets could face similar restrictions.
What Comes Next
CNN, Politico and MS NOW’s lawsuit over their revoked White House access remains pending, as does congressional Democrats’ push for further oversight of the pardon process and the Trump family’s crypto holdings. Kelly’s post did not call for a specific legislative or legal response, but it adds his voice — as a decorated combat veteran and one of the Democratic Party’s most closely watched potential 2028 contenders — to a chorus of lawmakers arguing that the accumulation of these individual controversies represents a broader erosion of democratic norms rather than a series of isolated incidents.