September 24, 2026 at 5:53 PM EDT
Rubio's silence shamed by former CIA officer: 'He knows better'

President Donald Trump hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the White House this week for a multi-day event in which critics complained the president "fawned" over Xi. But one national security expert and former CIA officer is shaming Secretary of State Marco Rubio for refusing to stand up for America in the moment. MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace on Thursday, ahead of the state dinner, asked Sue Gordon for her response to seeing Trump roll out the red carpet for Xi while he has "nothing but disdain and smears for our close friends to the north in Canada."

September 24, 2026 at 5:17 PM EDT
Republicans break with Trump over 'final straw'

On Thursday, following a war resolutions vote that saw an unusual number of Republicans break rank and side with Democrats in an attempt to end the conflict with Iran, an expert from a leading think tank asserted that the issue may be "ending" the presidency of President Donald Trump once and for all. While the vote failed due to a single Democratic defector, Brookings Institution Fellow Jessica Riedl said the Republican defections were telling.

September 24, 2026 at 5:02 PM EDT
Judge Cannon's secrecy order just backfired on Trump's allies

The investigation into President Donald Trump involving the theft of government documents, including classified information, was deemed restricted because Judge Aileen Cannon issued a permanent injunction barring the Justice Department from releasing it outside the department. Now it seems there's a bit of a hitch in that. Cannon was asked in a new filing whether that meant FBI agents or former FBI agents could testify about the Smith probe in other trials or investigations.

September 24, 2026 at 4:51 PM EDT
Trump officials just discredited his China election meddling claims

President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that China has meddled in past American elections and is planning on interfering in the 2026 midterms -- and yet he himself is unintentionally and quietly undermining these claims. "Trump has long cast doubt on the security of U.S. elections, including by attacking mail-in voting and promoting baseless conspiracy theories of widespread fraud in previous elections," reported Politico's Dana Nickel and Maggie Miller on Thursday. "In July, he delivered a primetime address on election security, which included claims that China was behind massive interference efforts targeting past elections. None of the documents the White House released in July appear to support this claim."

September 24, 2026 at 4:18 PM EDT
The suicide mission against the most powerful force in America

The thing about Donald Trump is that he's bad at being president. I don't mean tyrannical or fascist or criminal or corrupt. Those adjectives obviously apply, but I mean just plain bad . The basic job of being president is reflecting the will of the majority of the American people as faithfully as possible. When you run afoul of public opinion, you change course quick.

September 24, 2026 at 11:44 AM EDT
'Mood is very bad': GOP operative says 'knives are out' as election nears

Speaking to Politico's Thursday "Playbook," one Republican operative explained the mood is souring in the party. "The mood is very bad right now," a GOP operative told Politico. They are one of the many Republicans working on multiple races this cycle. "The polling is dropping like a rock, the map is expanding, and the knives are out among consultants."

September 24, 2026 at 11:37 AM EDT
Trump ally's failing campaign could doom GOP in top swing state

In Pennsylvania, Democratic strategists are feeling increasingly bullish about incumbent Gov. Josh Shapiro's chances of winning a second term in the 2026 midterms. Recent polls are showing State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, Shapiro's GOP challenger, trailing the moderate Democratic governor by 25 percent (Franklin & Marshall), 26 percent (the Bravo Group) or 17 percent (New York Times/Siena College). And according to the Washington Post's Dan Merica, Pennsylvania Republicans "are starting to worry that" Garrity's sinking campaign "is directly affecting four of the nation's most competitive House races."

September 24, 2026 at 11:06 AM EDT
Trump's full-blown 'constitutional crisis' is here: conservative

On Thursday, the editor-in-chief of a leading conservative publication called it: President Donald Trump has pushed the country into a " constitutional crisis ." This is according to Brent Scher, who helms the far-right outlet the Daily Wire, in response to news that the administration has disobeyed a court order blocking Trump's attempt to ban reporters from the White House. This matter has been snowballing since the weekend, when Trump announced that CNN, MS NOW, and Politico were banned from the White House for reporting what he called "purposefully negative stories." In response, the outlets filed a lawsuit as media networks - including Fox News - agreed to collectively boycott participation in the White House press pool. Trump was outraged when the lawsuit was assigned to a judge - appointed by Trump himself - who has previously ruled against the president's attacks on the press. Then over the night, the judge ruled that the administration must restore White House access to affected reporters, but when they showed up on Thursday morning, they were still denied entry. "It appears that the White House may be in defiance of this court order," noted CNN .

September 24, 2026 at 10:36 AM EDT
Stark warning issued to DOJ lawyers: Your future career is 'in jeopardy'

U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly issued a ruling in the early morning hours of Thursday reinstating reporters banned from covering the White House. But when reporters came to work on Thursday morning, the Secret Service refused to turn over their passes. An emergency hearing was then called. Speaking to CNN, legal analyst and former assistant U.S. Attorney Elie Honig was asked if this means that the White House is breaking the law.

September 24, 2026 at 10:27 AM EDT
Trump 'biting hand that feeds him' as he betrays core campaign promise

During Donald Trump's 2024 campaign, one of his most effective talking points was a promise to lower prices "on Day 1." But between President Trump's tariffs and his war against Iran, prices have increased since his return to the White House 20 months ago. And according to The New Republic's Virginia Heffernan, there is a word that is especially problematic for Trump at this point: diesel. "Diesel prices have surged since Trump took office, and especially since February 28, when he started the war in Iran," Heffernan explains in a New Republic article. "When Joe Biden left at the start of 2025, diesel cost an average $3.63 per gallon. Just this month, that price blew past an average of $5.85 to a record high of more than $6.50. Disruptions to oil shipments, notably in the Strait of Hormuz, are pushing up crude oil prices, while reduced diesel supplies have left fuel markets tight all over the world. On Monday, Tom Kloza, the chief oil analyst at Gulf Oil, was not reassuring. 'Monday morning price average for US diesel is $6.51/gal,' he posted to X."

September 24, 2026 at 6:02 AM EDT
A surreal Neo-confederate blueprint is rewriting America's reality

Donald Trump -- America's First White President, aspiring dictator for life, El Generalissimo, and Billionaire MAGA God and Prophet -- is continuing his campaign to remake Washington, D.C. in his own image. Trump is digging in, hunkering down, burrowing.

September 24, 2026 at 5:44 AM EDT
Trump's self-proclaimed title as 'king of ratings' faces sobering collapse

Just days after a dramatic White House press war culminated in the launch of his own 24/7 state-run broadcasting network, the project has completely tanked. According to viewership data, the newly minted "Trump TV: The Essentials Station" is generating numbers so catastrophically low that it is being soundly outperformed on YouTube by a literal black screen, according to the Daily Beast.