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I feel optimistic about the midterm elections, just over five weeks away. But my stomach aches when I think of what’s at stake. Call me nauseously optimistic. I suspect you’re in a similar place. If it were only the polls, I’d feel reasonably good. Here’s one that stuck out for me: The share of Republicans who say the economy is better than a year ago has collapsed from over 70 percent in January to 29 percent in September, according to last week’s New York Times /Siena poll . Here’s another: According to a Wall Street Journal poll , just 37 percent of Americans approve of the job that Trump is doing — the lowest approval rating of any president heading into a midterm election in Journal polls dating to 1990. Another good sign: Because of Trump’s unpopular war, his dreaded tariffs, and their effect on prices, Republicans in tight races are starting to tiptoe away from Trump. In recent days, Maine Senator Susan Collins and Kansas Senator Roger Marshall have distanced themselves from...
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Biographer: Foreign dictators play Trump 'like A fiddle' exploiting weakness

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Biographer Michael Wolff walked through the knots the White House staff must untangle as they try to get President Donald Trump to focus on tangible outcomes in meetings with foreign leaders. Over the past week, Trump welcomed China's leader, Xi Jinping , and it appeared their activities were centered around the president showing off his construction, his military and what appeared to be his first trip to the National Archives as president. Meanwhile, the visit from Xi was said to be a "summit," which would focus on trade, avoiding a crisis with Taiwan, discussions over minerals, market access, guardrails for artificial intelligence and arms control. Trump’s approach to meeting foreign leaders puts his aversion to detailed briefings on full display at a time of high-stakes diplomacy. It's a "difficult moment for a president" who must hold a lot of information in their brain about customs and gestures all while remembering the specifics about policy and in...
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Trump just previewed '2-year temper tantrum' that lies ahead: legal expert

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President Donald Trump got a strong legal pushback from three major media organizations — CNN, MS NOW and Politico — after banning them from the White House press pool ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Washington, DC. In an article for The Atlantic, legal expert Quinta Jurecic warns that the media ban is a "preview" of the "two-year temper tantrum" that lies ahead during the second half of Trump's second presidency. "The whole kerfuffle was a display of both Trump's power and his impotence: damaging to democracy yet also undermining of his own authority," Jurecic explains in her Atlantic article. "What prompted this particular round of White House abuse of the press is not entirely clear. But Trump often resorts to attacking the media when he receives news he dislikes — and between rising fuel prices caused by the war in Iran, sinking poll numbers for the congressional GOP, and Trump's own declining popularity, there i...
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Trump Treasury secretary set off Wall St. revolt he can't control

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During a speech at Southern Methodist University in Texas on Tuesday, September 8, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had a message for the bond market : "I am the house now." But according to journalist Joseph Zeballos-Roig, "the house is getting a lot of egg on it ." In a late September op-ed for MS NOW, Zeballos-Roig argues that Bessent "dared traders to cross him" during that September 8 speech — and is getting more than he bargained for. "The $32 trillion American bond market is generating a flood of headlines lately," Zeballos-Roig writes on MS NOW's website. "Why? The instrument that the U.S. government uses to fund its own activities is going haywire. The 10-year Treasury yield is trading at its highest level since the run-up to the financial crisis in 2007, and a similar spike has been recorded for the 30-year yield, which reached its highest point since 2004. These bonds influence mortgages, auto and corporate loans, so it carri...
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Geraldo tears apart Trump’s media ban —and points out one 'appalled' irony

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In the past, television journalist and former Fox News pundit Geraldo Rivera was on very friendly terms with President Donald Trump. But Rivera, now 83, lashed out at Trump when he refused to accept the results of the United States' 2020 presidential election. And now, Rivera is highly critical of Trump's ban of three major media organizations — CNN, MS NOW and Politico — from the White House press pool. The ban came days before Trump's White House meeting with visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping. During an appearance on MS NOW , Michael McFaul — who served as U.S. ambassador to Russia under former President Barack Obama — was appalled that reporters for CNN, MS NOW and Politico were kept out of the White House while members of state-owned Chinese media were granted access. In a Friday, September 25 post on X , formerly Twitter, Rivera wrote, "President Trump's ban on WH media was as badly timed as it was Unconstitutional. He wanted maximum exposure of his grand...
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MAGA congressman blasts Trump for undermining Republican midterm chances

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A Republican lawmaker who normally supports President Donald Trump openly admitted in a Thursday interview that the president's "lack of focus" is hurting members of his party seeking reelection. "I think a lot of people are burying Republican prospects in the November election; I think 40 days out is a little early to say that," Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) told CNN's Jake Tapper in response to a question about an earlier remark Johnson made about Trump's seeming lack of focus. Johnson is not seeking reelection to the House of Representatives because he unsuccessfully attempted to run for South Dakota governor. In response to Tapper's question, he tried to boost the GOP's electoral prospects while admitting that the president has made political mistakes. "I would say our chances of winning are a lot better if we're talking about the border, about what real steps have been taken on affordability, and about us rolling back some of the nonse...
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Critics say 'pathetic' Trump’s summit behavior humiliates America

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President Donald Trump's conduct when engaging in summits, such as his ongoing one with Chinese President Xi Jinping, is "pathetic," at least according to one conservative commentator and retired professor from the US Naval War College . "Once at the White House, Trump took Xi for a quick tour," wrote The Atlantic's Tom Nichols on Thursday. "Trump had long ago replaced Joe Biden’s portrait in the hall of presidents with a picture of an autopen, a petty jab from a small and petty man, and on their walk, he made sure that Xi saw it. He even gave the Chinese leader a bit of a pat on the arm while yukking it up." Nichols continued, "This was too much even for the conservative writer Charles Cooke of National Review, who posted on X about Trump’s 'grotesque behavior.' Xi, Cooke said, 'is a communist dictator, and the head of a foreign state. Our internal divisions are not fair game in this context.'" Nichols then summed up t...
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