February 26, 2026 at 9:46 PM EST
Family member warns Trump's cognitive decline 'only going to worsen' as US braces for war

Trump's niece Mary Trump confessed on CNN that her uncle's mental impairment is more obvious than ever, and the aging president does not need to be leading the nation to war with Iran or anybody. "It's important to remember that [President] Donald Trump has never been fit in any capacity," Trump said to CNN anchor Erin Burnett Thursday night.

February 26, 2026 at 9:32 PM EST
Effort to contain Candace Owens is tearing MAGA apart: report

Bulwark editor and MAGA-world monitor Will Sommer says the slightly less crazy wing of far-right influencers are losing their fight against the craziest one of all. "It's clear that Ben Shapiro and his ilk have lost " control of the MAGA audience," said Sommer. "They are powerless to stop [MAGA influencer Candace] Owens from terrorizing their friend's widow, from pushing antisemitism, and generally from acting as a thorn in the movement ahead of the midterms. After more than a decade of conspiracy theories, and voting for the country's arch conspiracy-theorist to be president, the audience will really believe in anything."

February 26, 2026 at 9:09 PM EST
Right wingers are more prone to having 'kooky beliefs': study

Do you believe in ghosts, mind reading and witches? If you do, you're likely a kid -- or maybe a right-wing authoritarian. New research published in The Journal of Social Psychology suggests that individuals who endorse certain right-wing political ideologies are more likely to believe in paranormal phenomena. "There have long been speculations that esotericism and beliefs in the paranormal are related to right-wing beliefs," said Alexander Jedinger, a senior researcher at the GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, speaking with PsyPost. "There is much research in history and cultural studies on this topic, and of course, there are a lot of references in popular culture to Nazi esotericism, exemplified in movies such as Indiana Jones and Hellboy. However, there was little quantitative evidence on these kinds of relationships."

February 26, 2026 at 9:03 PM EST
'No authority': Red state Republican stands up to Trump

President Donald Trump wants a Republican politician in Utah, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, to hand over the entire voter registration database -- but she is refusing. "Neither state nor federal law entitles the Department of Justice to collect private information on law-abiding American citizens," Henderson said in a statement responding to Trump's lawsuit against Utah and 28 other states. "Utahns can be assured that my office will always follow the Constitution and the law, protect voters' rights, and administer free and fair elections."

February 26, 2026 at 7:25 PM EST
'Not going away': Senate Republicans begin to turn on Trump

President Donald Trump wants the Jeffrey Epstein scandal to go away -- but according to Republican senators, that is not going to happen. "Republican senators are putting pressure on Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Justice Department to release all files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that mention President Trump's name, warning the issue won't go away until there is full transparency," reported The Hill on Thursday.

February 26, 2026 at 6:12 PM EST
GOP helpless to stop MAGA from digging their grave: analysis

Intelligencer writer Ed Kilgore says "virtually every Republican political strategist agrees that the economy, and particularly the cost of living, will be the dominant issue in the 2026 midterms." Too bad MAGA isn't letting the Republican Party go there.

February 26, 2026 at 5:49 PM EST
Trump's 'emergency' voting proposal 'divorced from legal reality': experts

Legal and voting rights experts are sounding the alarm after a Washington Post bombshell report revealed that President Donald Trump -- who has been insisting on federalizing voting and has issued an executive order to pressure states to require proof of citizenship for voter registration -- is now being urged by activists to sign an executive order declaring a voting "emergency." The proposed 17-page order would "unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting," the Post reported, noting that the proposal "claims China interfered in the 2020 election" which would be the "basis to declare a national emergency."

February 26, 2026 at 5:37 PM EST
Former Trump official enrages Arkansas Republicans over money pit proposal

A former Trump official has returned home to infuriate her Republican friends, reports the New York Times. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was President Donald Trump's White House press secretary in his first term. She has since gone home to become the first woman governor of Arkansas. This year, however, the GOP leader is cutting a swath of bitterness through her fellow Republicans in the legislature. A handful of Republican state senators are blocking Sanders' push to build the state's largest prison. They complain about the project's $825 million cost and the infrastructure strain of creating 3,000 new beds in a rural area with unpaved roads and no water infrastructure to supply it.

February 26, 2026 at 5:35 PM EST
'Pay the consequences': Trump's bullying has a new target

President Donald Trump is reportedly threatening Netflix to fire Susan Rice, a former UN ambassador under President Barack Obama, or else "pay the consequences." "President Donald Trump is not the sort of old-fashioned Republican who believes businesses should operate unfettered from government interference," reported The Week. "Instead, he is now telling Netflix to fire a prominent board member who once worked for the Obama administration."

February 26, 2026 at 4:12 PM EST
Republican Comer changes tune after Trump official allegedly lied

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer appears to be changing his tune on Howard Lutnick, now suggesting that it is "very possible" he might subpoena him after the Trump Commerce Secretary allegedly lied before Congress about the extent of his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Just two weeks ago, MS NOW reported that Chairman Comer had dodged questions about subpoenaing Lutnick.

February 26, 2026 at 11:45 AM EST
Republicans say their 'razor-thin' majority leaves scandal-plagued members 'untouchable'

The House is caught up in a "losing battle" with its own "razor-thin" majority, according to a lawmaker who spoke to MS NOW, with the harsh reality of the "game of numbers" leaving scandal-plagued member likes Tony Gonzales "untouchable." Others in the caucus, meanwhile, have been able to use it as an "incredible bargaining chip. Gonzales, a Texas Republican facing a primary race next week, has recently been embroiled in a thorny scandal that has colleagues calling for his resignation. Gonzales is accused of carrying on an affair with former staffer Regina Santos-Aviles, who committed suicide in graphic fashion last year at her home in Uvalde. While the congressman has denied the relationship, recently surfaced text messages from Santos-Aviles show her admitting to an affair with the boss.

February 26, 2026 at 11:34 AM EST
Rick Wilson names names of those killing the republic -- and demands jail for DOJ leaders

Lincoln Project co-founder and former Republican strategist Rick Wilson penned a Thursday column alleging that the downfall of the American republic will come at the hands of damned souls he described as a cancer. Then he named names of those propping up President Donald Trump. Wilson began by saying that if someone truly wants to understand how the country is destroyed, they must look beyond the "fringes of MAGA screeching on Twitter" and instead look directly into the bottomless black wells where conscience was long ago replaced with corruption and greed.