The Robinson Report

In this episode of The Robinson Report, host Steve sits down with former Maine Senate Republican Leader and 2026 gubernatorial candidate Garrett Mason for a wide-ranging conversation about his path to the race, his vision for the state, and the policy battles ahead. Mason discusses his entry into the U.S. Senate in 2010 and becoming Maine's youngest-ever Senate Republican Leader. He highlights his gubernatorial plans on tax reform, energy costs, housing, immigration enforcement, and education The conversation also digs into Mason's positioning within a competitive Republican primary field, his critiques of the Mills administration's record on welfare spending and asylum seeker resettlement, and his approach to governing as an experienced Augusta insider. This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe

A seven-hour Lewiston City Council meeting centers on emotional testimony from Bobbi Nichols, a survivor of the Lewiston shooting, along with renewed criticism of how relief money was distributed and how city officials have responded. Meanwhile, Joe Baldacci’s explanation for opposing a Charlie Kirk resolution is examined, including his comments about Kirk’s message and character. Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe

Governor Janet Mills releases a campaign ad using Graham Platner’s past written comments about rape, sparking immediate debate over its tone, authenticity, and effectiveness. Graham Platner responds at a press conference, where he apologizes and is joined by supporters speaking on his behalf. Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe

Graham Platner’s remarks on a recent podcast kept the tattoo issue alive at a time when Janet Mills is already under pressure from fraud-related questions and national attention on Maine. Additionally, a book at the J.A. Leonard Middle School teaches students about “leather daddy” kinks. Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe

Photos of trash dumped near a Maine stream raise questions about how environmental standards are enforced in rural areas. At the same time, protests in Portland highlighted the contrast between national political activism and local issues affecting the city. Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe

Steve Robinson interviews Jonathan Bush, Athenahealth founder and Republican candidate for Maine governor. Bush shares his outsider CEO vision for cutting taxes, shrinking state government in Augusta, reforming Medicaid, addressing drug policies and Portland’s challenges, and driving economic growth. He also discusses his family background, plans to strengthen the Republican Party, and the progressive insanity that has taken over the modern Democrat Party. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube & Substack... Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe

David Trahan, long-time state lawmaker and the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine Executive Director, joins Maine Wire TV to warn viewers about what Maine’s new red flag law may actually require in practice: more armed state response, less due process, and a much greater chance of volatile confrontations at people’s homes. Meanwhile, Portland serves as the visual counterpoint to all the rhetoric coming out of Augusta, with open-air drug activity, public filth, and visible human collapse unfolding in broad daylight. Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe

A school board meeting over Title IX turns into a shouting match, with the central dispute no longer just about policy but about who gets to define harassment, bullying, and basic reality in Maine schools. That same pattern of denial and escalation shows up again in Augusta, where a tiny home care office appears to be producing extraordinary Medicaid revenue while the people running it struggle to explain the basics. Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe

Federal agents were back at a Lewiston location associated with another alleged fraud matter, suggesting that scrutiny of Maine’s Medicaid network is continuing to grow. Meanwhile, the Mills administration wants The Maine Wire to pay $8,325 and wait nine months for records related to a $750 million transportation contract, a timeline likely to draw further criticism. Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe

Whether it’s protest signs invoking the French Revolution, politicians bragging about fighting fraud they never stopped, or Medicaid dollars disappearing into a maze of shell operators, the pattern stays the same. The people in charge either refuse to act, pretend not to know, or hope nobody asks the next obvious question. Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe

Not long after the latest Maine Wire TV episode aired, Governor Janet Mills issued a statement rejecting claims of Medicaid fraud in Maine. Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe

Another live Maine Wire TV broadcast puts Fetherston right at the center of the story, and this time it’s not friendly. Additionally, the Main Wire’s Sword of Truth unexpectedly becomes its own political crisis, with legal, ethical, and campaign questions. Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe

The firing of Kristi Noem followed a heated Senate exchange over DHS spending, where questions were raised about a massive advertising campaign and whether it had been properly bid out. At the local level, disputes over school policy and Title IX enforcement continue to ignite contentious school board battles. Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe

A Portland strip of “home health care” signage delivers the same result again—ten doors, zero humans—while reports surface that multiple agencies received confidential letters, possibly signaling a scramble inside DHHS. Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe

Investigative journalist Peter Schweizer joined me for an interview about his latest bombshell book: The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon. What he revealed should alarm every American who cares about national security, the integrity of our democratic system, and the malevolent schemes Chinese communists have spent decades implementing against the United States. Schweizer isn’t just talking about the traditional immigration debate — jobs, wages, border security, illegal alien drunk drivers mowing down pedestrians. He’s exposing how foreign adversaries, particularly the Chinese Communist Party, have turned immigration into a strategic weapon against the United States.The most shocking revelation from Schweizer’s book is that over the last 13 years, approximately 100,000 babies per year have been born in the United States to Chinese nationals who immediately return to China with their newborn American citizens. That’s more than 1.3 million Chinese nationals. These are not “Anchor Babies” or “Dreamers.” These are Chinese citizens raised entirely under the CCP system who’ve exploited birthright citizenship rules to maintain U.S. citizen status. They will be eligible to vote, donate to political campaigns, and take government jobs when they turn 18.Join 27k other patriots to subscribe to New England’s best anti-communist Substack!What’s worse, our federal government doesn’t even track these numbers. As far as I know, Schweizer is the first investigative reporter to even attempt to assess the scale of this national security nightmare. “China has looked at this on an industrial scale,” Schweizer told me. “Research firms there have studied it. The CCP has actively encouraged their elite — military officers, intelligence officers, propaganda officials — to exploit our birthright citizenship laws.”The People’s Daily, the CCP’s main publication, has run articles telling the Chinese elite they have a “constitutional right” to obtain U.S. citizenship for their children. This isn’t about Chinese dissidents seeking freedom — these are regime loyalists executing a long-term strategic plan.What should keep every American up at night is the question of what the CCP plans to do with the sleeping dragon that is the Chinese-in-America voting block. *cough* Gavin Newsom *cough* …This hits close to home for Maine readers. Eight to ten years ago, newspapers including Maine Public and the Lewiston Sun Journal hailed a proposed investment from a company called Miracle Enterprises. Chinese investors promised to transform a distressed mill property into a “medical tourism” destination where wealthy Chinese would come for hip replacements and heart surgery.City leaders celebrated the economic opportunity. Here’s how Maine’s taxpayer-funded outlet covered it:The plan was announced Friday morning at a press conference in which a Chinese investment company, Central Maine Medical Center and city and state officials heralded what they call a unique opportunity.So, just what is a five-star medical tourism facility? In Auburn, it will be a 200-room recovery center that can house at least 5,000 guests a year.The investor behind the project is Miracle Enterprise, a group that has a number of health care initiatives in China, according to management representative Michelle Xu. She says their target clients are wealthy Chinese individuals who, upon their arrival at the future 5-star facility, will get a complete work-up on their health.“So that would include physical examination, stem cell analysis and genetic analysis and testings, and after all of that is done we’ll be able to analyze the health condition of that person and what kind of treatments he or she needs,” she says.Guests could opt for elective treatments such as anti-aging. Or they could arrive with known medical conditions, and Central Maine Medical Center is a willing partner to provide care, says President Peter Chalke.But looking at Schweizer’s research, the picture becomes clear: this was never about medical tourism. It was about birth tourism. That is, establishing facilities where CCP-sponsored officials could give birth to American citizens who, 18 years later, could help advance China’s strategic objectives.If industrial-scale birth tourism wasn’t alarming enough, Schweizer uncovered an even more disturbing aspect of the industrial-scale subversion of our birthright citizenship rules vis-a-vis surrogacy. Members of the Chinese elite contract with American women, paying them $50,000-$60,000 to carry their biological children to term, Schweizer reported. When the child is born, they gain U.S. citizenship — with the added benefit of having an American biological mother. The child is then immediately taken to China to be raised in the CCP system.The Wall Street Journal recently reported on a single Chinese billionaire close to the CCP who has more than 100 children born this way. Schweizer’s team found 107 Chinese-owned surrogacy companies operating in Southern California alone.Why isn’t anyone stopping this? Because for some, mass migration has become a political strategy.Schweizer points out that the Democratic Party discovered in the 1990s that 85% of newly minted citizens vote Democrat. The Clinton, Obama, and Biden administrations all loosened citizenship requirements, watered down English proficiency tests, and ignored criminal background checks by the hundreds of thousands. They created the euphemism “asylum seeker” and then handed out work authorization documents that could be treated like they were Social Security numbers. The biggest years for new U.S. citizens according to Schweizer’s analysis? 1996, 2012, and 2024 — all re-election years for Democratic presidents.But even non-voting illegal immigrants shift political power. The U.S. Census counts people, not citizens. California currently has an estimated four to seven more congressional seats than it would if only citizens were counted. That’s more political power, more Electoral College votes, and more federal funding. All of those benefits come because they’re counting illegal immigrants.As Schweizer put it: “Those four congressional seats represent a bigger delegation than 13 other states have. That’s twice as many congressional votes as Maine has in the House of Representatives.”This isn’t theoretical. Here in Maine, readers of The Robinson Report know that Secretary of State Shenna Bellows — now running for governor — admitted on a podcast with Marc Elias that there are non-citizens registered to vote in Maine. She later denied saying it, but the recording exists. So who are you going to believe, Shenna or your lying eyes?Meanwhile, Bellows is refusing to turn over Maine’s voter registration file to the Department of Justice and issuing Real IDs to non-citizens who present only work authorization documents, i.e. paroled illegal aliens. So what can be done in the face of external adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party and internal adversaries who aid and abet unlimited migration for political benefits? Schweizer’s solutions are straightforward:Ban birth tourism — Congress must prohibit the industry facilitating foreign nationals traveling here solely to birth American citizens.Reform birthright citizenship — The Supreme Court should clarify that the 14th Amendment was about freed slaves under U.S. jurisdiction, not birth tourists who immediately return to foreign countries.Change the Census — Count citizens, not people. Stop incentivizing states to harbor illegal immigrants for political power.Secure the border — Continue deportations despite resistance from states benefiting politically from illegal immigration.Awareness — Schweizer briefed President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and key members of Congress. They were surprised by much of what he revealed. “Until we deal with weaponized immigration,” he said, “we can’t have a good conversation about the level of legal immigration we want.”“I’m optimistic,” Schweizer said. “I feel like people are finally getting what’s really going on.”Let’s hope he’s right. And let’s hope we’re not already too late.Check it out: The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon is available now. Peter Schweizer is the author of multiple New York Times bestsellers including Clinton Cash and Blood Money. Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe

The upcoming Clash in the Queen City Debate is going to be a pivotal night in the Republican primary, with high expectations for turnout and impact. Meanwhile, Jon Fetherston has an interesting conversation with Representative Deqa Dhalac in an elevator. Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe

Platner’s rally provides the usual moral grandstanding and accusation template, while Maine’s patterns of billing, political proximity, and offices that vanish during business hours. It’s a day of big geopolitical talk paired with small, stubborn facts, notes on doors, locked offices, and the growing sense that the public is being played. Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe

Lisbon Street looks like a one-mile stretch of money transfers and “home care” doors that nobody wants to open, while Janet Beaudoin lays out the unglamorous truth: if Republicans don’t get serious about absentee ballots, they’re going to keep handing Democrats winnable elections. Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe

Trump used the State of the Union to formally launch what he called a “war on fraud,” putting states like Maine and Minnesota on notice. The plan centers on empowering federal investigators and Vice President J.D. Vance to root out massive waste, abuse, and organized Medicaid schemes. Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe

Trump’s Oval Office moment with the USA hockey champions underscored his comfort in unscripted, high-energy settings that play to his political strengths. Furthermore, a new Pine Tree State poll injected fresh intrigue into Maine politics by showing weakness for Janet Mills and early complications for Susan Collins. Get full access to The Robinson Report at robinsonreport.substack.com/subscribe