February 1, 2026 at 3:18 PM EST
Trump derided for claiming he was 'not involved' with losing candidate

Hours after the Republican Party suffered an upset defeat in a special election in a deep-red district in Texas, President Donald Trump falsely claimed he had nothing to do with the race. While speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Sunday, Trump was asked what he made of the GOP losing a Texas state senate election in a district that he carried by 17 percentage points in 2024.

February 1, 2026 at 2:13 PM EST
Moderate churches 'hollowed out' as Christian Right's 'extreme influence' persists

In a survey released in March 2023, Pew Research Center examined Americans' views on different religious groups. Pew found that 27 percent of respondents had a "very" or "somewhat unfavorable" view of evangelicals, while only 10 percent had that view of Mainline Protestants and 6 percent felt that way about Jews. But the fact that evangelicals fared badly in Pew's survey doesn't mean that they are going away.

February 1, 2026 at 1:26 PM EST
Republicans have a plan to keep women from voting: report

Between a series of Democratic election victories in late 2025 and early 2026 and President Donald Trump's weak approval ratings in a long list of recent polls, Republican strategists are growing increasingly worried about this year's midterms --which are a little over nine months away. Never Trump conservative and New York Times columnist David French fears that Trump and his allies will use militarized U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) raids to "intimidate" non-white voters in November. And Guardian opinion columnist Arwa Mahdawi worries that MAGA Republicans will resort to another tactic to discourage Democratic voter turnout: making it harder for women to vote.

February 1, 2026 at 12:45 PM EST
'Earthquake of a scandal' as foreign investment in Trump firm skyrockets

A bombshell Saturday report from the Wall Street Journal revealed that a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family secretly backed a massive $500 million investment into the Trump family's cryptocurrency venture months before the Trump administration gave the United Arab Emirates access to highly sensitive artificial intelligence chip technology. According to the Journal's sources, lieutenants of Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan signed a deal in early 2025 to buy a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, the startup founded by members of the Trump family and the family of Trump Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

February 1, 2026 at 12:38 PM EST
Even conservative George Will gets it

In today's edition, I'm going to try something different. Instead of an essay or analysis or an interview, I'm going to offer diary-like entries. The reason is practical, but also artistic, if you will indulge the term. These diary entries reflect how my mind works - vestiges, observations, random thoughts - sometimes interconnected but more often not. I wrote them on Bluesky before they appeared here, but have expanded and modified nearly all of them in order to give the impression of a beginning, middle and end.

February 1, 2026 at 11:51 AM EST
Trump's 'massive war chest' remains unmatched -- even as his popularity dives

With the United States' 2026 midterms a little over nine months away, President Donald Trump's low approval ratings are a major source of anxiety for GOP strategists. And a series of Democratic election victories has them worried as well. The latest came on Saturday night, January 30 in a special election for a Texas State Senate seat in the Ft. Worth suburbs. Donald Trump carried that district by 17 percent in 2024, but on January 30, Democratic nominee Taylor Rehmet defeated Republican Leigh Wambsganss (who Trump endorsed) by 14 percent.

February 1, 2026 at 10:34 AM EST
Trump admin 'overwhelming themselves' with their own brutal strategy

MAGA Republican Steve Bannon, host of the "War Room" vodcast and former White House Chief strategist in the first Trump Administration, famously described the MAGA movement's strategy as "flood the zone with s---." The idea, according to Bannon, is to keeping opponents feeling overwhelmed by inundating them with nonsense. "Real Time" host Bill Maher warned Democrats not to fall for it. Democrats, he stressed, need to pick their battles carefully with Trump and not "lose their s---" every time he says something offensive.

February 1, 2026 at 9:38 AM EST
Trump could become even more dangerous as public anger soars: historian

Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat -- a history professor at New York University, author of the 2020 book "Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present," and a frequent guest on MS NOW -- is known for her expertise on the history of fascism and authoritarianism. And she isn't shy about comparing President Donald Trump to authoritarian figures of the past. In an op-ed/essay published by the New York Times on February 1, Ben-Ghiat argues that Trump's overreach may backfire -- which, she points out, happened with authoritarians before.

February 1, 2026 at 8:47 AM EST
The Aztec empire's collapse shows why ruling through coercion and force fails

When Aztec emissaries arrived in 1520 to Tzintzuntzan, the capital of the Tarascan Kingdom in what is now the Mexican state of Michoaca'n, they carried a warning from the Aztec emperor, Cuauhte'moc. They cautioned that strange foreigners - the Spaniards - had invaded the land and posed a grave threat. The emissaries requested an audience with the Tarascan ruler, known as the Cazonci, King Zuanga. But Zuanga had recently died, most likely from smallpox brought by the Spaniards.

February 1, 2026 at 8:34 AM EST
Trump's crackdown exposes Americans' shocking 'cognitive dissonance': analysis

The fatal shootings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti during President Donald Trump's militarized immigration raids in Minneapolis are fueling large protests not only in that city, but also, everywhere from New York City to Seattle to Milan, Italy -- where, on Saturday, January 31, hundreds of protesters demanded that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents assisting with the Winter Olympics leave the country.

January 31, 2026 at 2:32 PM EST
Critics blast 'Donald Degenerate' after Epstein tipper alleges death threat

President Donald Trump's culpability in connection to convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein is not dying down this week with the release of roughly 3.5 million new files on Friday, according to Raw Story. Included in the documents were multiple tips sent to authorities regarding abuses and behavior of Trump at the height of the president's friendship with Epstein. One such tip involved a witness telling the FBI in 2016 that they had "personally witnessed" Trump threaten to "disappear" a girl and have her entire family killed.

January 31, 2026 at 1:39 PM EST
Trump just sent the wrong message as he continues to 'spiral': analysis

New York Times Columnist Jamelle Bouie says President Donald Trump likes to project the image bullying strength at all times, whether it's against Democrats, critics, or the news media. But the president's effort to steamroll independent media on Thursday may number among the recent examples of overreach that's currently knocking Trump off his spin. "One point I've tried to make over the last year is that the Trump administration has a starkly unsophisticated vision of power," said Bouie. "Where a subtler president might cajole and persuade, President Trump demands and threatens. He prefers subordinates to partners and tries to dominate his opponents rather than de-escalate a situation or find a mutually beneficial solution. He rejects persuasion altogether. If he wants something, he takes it."