The Right Wing

There’s a raging Republican revolt against President Donald Trump in America’s heartland, the Hill reports, and one former Trump official explained what’s “different” about the growing GOP divide.

The anonymous former Trump administration official spoke with The Hill’s Mallory Wilson and Julia Manchester in an article published Saturday, describing the public pushback against Trump from MAGA Republicans in Kansas, Ohio and Indiana, among others, as par for the course in a tough campaign season.

“If Donald Trump isn’t popular in your district or state, you should expect your candidates to try to create some distance. That is the ordinary course of business,” the former official said.

“What is different right now is that Trump is unpopular in a lot more districts, and a lot more states, than anyone expected. But the die is pretty much cast. This is his party now. If it wins, it’s because of him. If it loses, it’s because of him. There’s just no two ways about that,” the ex-official added.

The Hill report notes recent comments from Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) “critical of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operating in his state.” Although a Democrat hasn’t won the Kansas Senate race since 1932, the Cook Political Report this week moved the race from “likely Republican” to “lean Republican,” a sign that the once solidly-red seat could be in play.

As Beltway insider Mark Halperin wrote Friday, "While public polls are horrendous for Republicans, the private ones are worse.”

Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind) likewise “spoke out against Trump inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Group of 20 (G20) summit this December in Miami," the Hill reports.

Earlier this month, Young, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called for the U.S. to “pause bombing Iran and focus on securing the country's nuclear material,” Indiana’s WISH-TV reported at the time.

The Iran war serves as a key point of contention for heartland leaders, according to the Hill, as “prices for gas and fertilizer skyrocket as a result” of the conflict.

Republican strategist Doug Heye told the Hill Republicans are “clearly … increasingly nervous about the costs of the war and that there seems to be no end in sight and still no definition of what success means.”

“No doubt we’ll hear more Republicans echoing similar concerns," Heye said.

Among those already making noise about the Iran war include “Iowa Senate candidate Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) and Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.),” the Hill reports. Former Rep. Mike Rogers, who’s locked in a fierce Senate battle in Michigan, recently called for a “quick” end to the war. And, as the Hill notes, “Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) told Politico earlier this week that ‘the war needs to come to an end as quickly as possible so that we can lower gas prices.’”

“It’s the right move to make,” Heye told the Hill. “but impossible to tell how much success it will have.”

GOP strategist Preya Samsundar told the Hill the defections come as farmers across the Midwest “gear up for harvest season.”

“That is acres upon acres of products and goods that American farmers are going to be harvesting this fall,” Samsundar said. “[Republicans] understand what the president is doing is important, but their constituencies are suffering. … They’re not seeing immediate relief, the prices continue to rise and they have to give an account for that.”

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 carries real financial consequences for Main Street, as Navy Federal Credit Union Chief Economist Heather Long has pointed out."

Zeballos-Roig continues, "It's harder now for Americans to lock in personal loans under favorable terms or to refinance a mortgage without paying a lot more. The average 30-year mortgage rate has leapt to just over 7 percent, which started climbing earlier this year after the United States partnered with Israel to launch a military campaign against Iran that currently has no end in sight. Bond unrest is also bad news for Wall Street, since higher yields can squeeze corporate borrowing and ultimately constrain their profits. Yields move opposite to prices, and their steady climb signals that investors are demanding higher interest rates in exchange for buying government debt."

Zeballos-Roing notes that "higher rates carry financial consequences for the U.S. government."

"By one estimate," the journalist says, "rising interest rates means the U.S. national debt will be $1.5 trillion larger than originally projected by the Congressional Budget Office over the next decade … Investors simply haven't been swayed by the Trump administration's aggressive intervention into the bond market. They're unnerved about the U.S. sitting on a $40 trillion mountain of debt and anxious about inflation setting in due to the Iran war. So far, the ongoing spike showcases Bessent's failure to artificially suppress yields and get the situation under control. He set out to be the 'nation's top bond salesman,' drumming up demand for these assets so that mortgage rates fall, along with overall borrowing costs. His approach has fallen flat. Bessent does recognize that the so-called bond vigilantes — traders who rebel against government policies they view as inflationary or promoting market instability — can discipline spendthrift governments and inflict political chaos once provoked … The bond market isn't buying what Bessent is selling."

On December 14–15, 2026, the Group of 20 Leaders’ Summit (G-20) will be held at U.S. President Donald Trump's resort in Doral, Florida near Miami. Trump invited Russian President Vladmir Putin to attend, but on Friday, September 25, a group of seven Republican senators joined Democrats in urging Trump to "reconsider" the invitation.

In a bipartisan letter to Trump, the seven Republican senators — Texas' John Cornyn, Mississippi's Roger Wicker, Kansas Jerry Moran, North Carolina's Thom Tillis, Utah's John Curtis, Oklahoma's Alan Armstrong and former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) — wrote, "Given President Putin's continued actions against the Ukrainian people and U.S. national security interests, we urge you to reconsider granting President Putin the stature and legitimacy to appear in the United States as a world leader at the G20 Leaders' Summit."

The Democratic senators who signed the letter included Rhode Island's Sheldon Whitehouse, Colorado's Michael Bennet, Virginia's Tim Kaine, Connecticut's Richard Blumenthal, Delaware's Chris Coons and Arizona's Ruben Gallego.

The senators also told Trump, "It is troubling that, despite being sanctioned, these individuals have been given access to participate in G20 forums hosted in the United States. The G20 is intended to foster international cooperation on critical issues including finance, trade and global economic stability. As Russia continues its war against Ukraine and refuses to agree to a just and lasting peace agreement, its government should not be afforded a business-as-usual treatment alongside other nations at G20 events."

The Hill's Helen Huiskes notes that the Republican senators who signed the letter to Trump "went beyond the usual Trump critics in the GOP."

"Their support on the letter, which urged Trump to rescind any such invitation to Putin and any other sanctioned Russian officials, demonstrates how Senate Republicans generally still support Ukraine in its war with Russia, and some have become more willing to push back on Trump amid his low approval rating," Huiskes reports. "The letter also cited the recently passed Russia-Iran sanctions bill, named for former Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who was one of the staunchest defenders of Ukraine in the Senate before his death in July. That bill increased sanctions on Russia, hoping to squeeze it economically as its aggression in Ukraine continues four years after invading that country."

A decade ago, conservative Washington Post columnist George Will expressed his disdain for Donald Trump and the MAGA movement by leaving the Republican Party and becoming an independent. And he hasn't grown any more favorable to Trump or MAGA since then. In a late September Post column, Will is highly critical of MAGA Christians — including Vice President JD Vance — and argues that they mirror, in many ways, the "socialists" they condemn.

"Undeterred by the axiom that there can be indecent exposure of the mind as well as the body," the 85-year-old Will writes in the Post, "the Democratic Socialists of America candidly announce their agenda. Religious 'integralists' should be similarly explicit. DSAers want to scrap the Constitution in order to facilitate confiscating wealth, private property and other impediments to government-enforced equality and social perfection. Christian integralists, who are disproportionately Catholic, are devout and determined to make the nation more so. They would enliven politics if they would specify the measures they advocate to, as they mistakenly say, return America to being a 'Christian nation.'"

Many MAGA Christians are fundamentalist Protestant evangelicals, but the ultra-MAGA Vance is a convert to Catholicism. And Will cites Vance as a prime example of an "integralist."

"Integralists want to integrate spiritual and temporal (government) power, subordinating the latter to the former," Will argues. "Harvard law professor Adrian Vermeule, the most intellectually interesting integralist, opposes 'the relentless expansion of individualistic autonomy,' and those who are 'enslaved to the original meaning of the Constitution.' Integralists have no 'horror of political domination and hierarchy' because law — government — must be 'parental, a wise teacher and an inculcator of good habits.'"

Will continues, "Vermeule's constitutionalism aims not to 'protect liberty' as 'an end in itself,' because 'constraints on power are good only derivatively,' by serving the integralist agenda, which requires robust parental government. Government should 'direct' individuals and society toward virtuous living through 'respect for the authority of rule and of rulers; respect for the hierarchies needed for society to function.' Well."

'Integralist' Christianity, according to Will, runs counter to "libertarian" principles.

"Integralists who speak, as Vance does, of 'the Christian foundation of this country,' are baptizing the Founders without their permission," Will writes. "The six most important — Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton — held, tepidly, various flavors of deism, which says a clockmaker deity got the universe going, then His attention wandered. The six tended toward unitarianism, the watery belief that there is at most one God. Integralists, like socialists, promise political transformations that will achieve salvation for our fallen world. Jesus said, 'My kingdom is not of this world' (John 18:36). Integralists, like socialists, are more ambitious."

A morning discussion on CNN began about once-loyal podcasters abandoning President Donald Trump in the new era of his presidency. It comes at an interesting time after Trump tried to remove several members of the press from the White House. Now, conservative outlets don't want to talk much about him either.

CNN played a supercut of podcasters telling Trump he's "lost touch" with the people and even Megyn Kelly begging Trump to "behave like a normal human."

"I mean, the president 3D chess — shut up!" she yelled into the microphone in April.

A Wall Street Journal report analyzed 70,000 hours of podcasts and found that mentions of Trump have slowed since summer of 2025, but much more after the start of the Iran war.

CNN contributor Lulu Garcia-Navarro said that everyone knew this day was coming and that there would come a point in which Trump no longer mattered. She explained that, unlike broadcast and cable television, a podcast stream on platforms has a direct connection to the audience because it shows when they start to click away.

"You can see when your numbers go down," she explained. "And I will tell you that generally speaking, and this is anecdotal, but people are less interested in talking about the president, if only to say, can't he shut up."

The Washington Examiner's executive editor and podcast host Bob Cusack said that it's clear Trump is losing his own audience.

Noel King, co-host of the podcast "Today, Explained," added, "I have a theory about this. As a podcaster, I will speak also anecdotally. People are less interested in President Trump, and I'll tell you why: He is incoherent. He does not make any sense. He seems completely out of touch. And if you don't have anything to talk about other than, like, this 80-year-old man is speaking nonsense, your audience is going to be like, okay, whatever."

One reason podcasters are turning to speak with Texas senatorial candidate James Talarico is that he's "interesting."

"In these podcasts you need — I mean, not in the news — I do something different, but these guys need a hero or a villain. Talarico is good on both, depending on how you feel about him or what you," King continued. She meant that to the left he's a hero and to the right he might be a villain, but both sides have an opinion and want to talk about him or hear about him. That's not the case for others, like Trump.

"I think also Texas is interesting. I think people feel like there's a narrative there," Garcia-Navarro said. "Will Texas flip? You know, who is this character that's come on to the scene? What does this mean for us? You know, he's a Christian that feeds into our audience. He's a person that we can legitimately talk about in a way that doesn't seem damaging to, you know, the psyche or the moral beliefs of the people who might follow."

She added that on the other side, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is "boring as anything ... Ken Paxton has not sat down for an interview at all this cycle. And I will tell you that even people who were wanting to book him are like, can he string a sentence together for more than a few minutes?"

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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."

They said there is a possibility they could save themselves from the bloodbath, but it would mean a significant shift.

"There is a world where we win everything if folks can turn it around and there is a world where this midterm is a historical blow out. People are very on edge," the operative said.

Democratic pollster John Anzalone looked back on the 1994 midterm and compared it to today's midterms. He noted that Dems have a knack for throwing things away.

“You were getting accidental congressmen [in 1994]. I mean that's really what was happening,” said Anzalone, who the report said, polls alongside President Donald Trump's pollster Tony Fabrizio. “Democrats always feel great in August, and then the spending is just so lopsided against us that we start s—— ourselves in September.”

That doesn't appear to be happening this year, though, he said.

“We have never seen diagnostics like this,” Anzalone said.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told Politico, "For the first time in 15 years, we could be in a position to lose a majority of the governorships."

He recalled serving as the chair of the Republican Governors Association when the GOP held 31 out of 50 governorships. Today that number is 26.

“I think there’s a scenario where Republicans wake up in the week or two after Election Day and say, ‘We’re just tired of losing,’” Christie said.

As for post-November and in 2028 talk, Christie said, “I think JD Vance has decided to make himself a disciple of Donald Trump, and I think that's the image that he's going to have to rise or fall with."

He doesn't appear to anticipate much of a GOP being left after Trump is finished with it.

“I really want to go out after the midterms are over, and depending upon what the results turn out to be, engage in a conversation with American voters about where we go from here,” Christie said. “And for my own party: are we tired of losing yet?”

He made the comment from New Hampshire, an early primary state for GOP candidates.

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."

Hefferman emphasizes that "skyrocketing diesel prices aim a missile squarely at the voters Trump can least afford to alienate" — including truck drivers who voted for him in 2024.

"Fully 90 percent of diesel truck buyers are men," Hefferman notes. "More than 84 percent identify as white. Most strikingly of all, truckers have a ram-tough party ID. According to one analysis, Republicans purchase eight heavy-duty trucks for every one purchased by a Democrat. And while Trump and his party have entirely failed to calm public fears about gas prices — 'I love the inflation!' Trump said in June — they've done far, far worse with diesel, where prices are spiking even more steeply."

Heffernan continues, "About one in five Trump voters now regrets their 2024 vote, according to one opinion-research organization. No wonder social media is filled with the diesel demographic, one-time Trump voters, raging at the president. 'Hey, Donald Trump, man, it just cost me $179 to fill up my diesel!' shouts a shirtless trucker at the top of his lungs. 'Six-dollar diesel is killing truck drivers!' shouts another."

Heffernan points to a recent video by ex-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) — a former Trump ally who is now a scathing critic — as a prime example of MAGA frustration over diesel prices.

In the video, posted on X on September 15, Greene argued, "This is Trump's fault … It's $8.49 for diesel in California. It's $6.59 in Georgia. I don't care if it's Georgia or California. It's way too high."

Greene, according to Hefferman, is "an intuitive grandmaster of the diesel class" and "has an especially keen eye for their issues: data centers, the Iran war, the Epstein files, and now diesel fuel."

Heffernan writes, "These are the issues Trump is dying on … By alienating the diesel class, Trump may have bitten the final hand that feeds him. Diesel is certainly the word to watch in these final weeks before the polls. If nothing else, it's excellent shorthand for the rambunctious MAGA coalition that political scientists have been trying to understand for a decade."

Dr. Steven Hassan's model of things cult leaders do to control others walks through specific examples, from clothing to pledges, and in a new video, ex-cult member Jim Picariello explained how MAGA has become a victim of Donald Trump's control.

Hassan's model is known as the BITE method for controlling people through undue influence. BITE stands for Behavior, Information, Thought and Emotional.

Picariello explained, using the model, that Trump is "reinforcing mind control" in some subtle and other outlandish ways. It may seem silly, but when Trump was buying his Cabinet officials shoes that didn't fit, Picariello said, it falls under that first column for "behavior." Examples include "control of physical environment, rigid rules, rewards and punishments and dependence and obedience."

"They were exactly the same style, and everybody was — what did they do? They wore them anyway just to show that they had allegiance towards Trump," said Picariello. "Now he's controlled their behavior."

Wearing the red MAGA hats is the more obvious option. "Everybody wears the hats. They feel like they're a part of a group, something bigger than themselves. It's human nature to want to do that. But when you can inspire one person, many people to behave in the way of wearing clothes — like, for instance, when they were wearing the ear bandages, right?" he said of the 2024 convention after a bullet grazed Trump's ear. Another was their "lock her up" chants and the administration's "prayer meetings." At the recent event in Dallas, Texas, Trump had his supporters swear an oath to him and the GOP. Another is Trump's obsessive decorations of the White House.

Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton began studying the Chinese government's mind control. He described the ritualistic nature of their language use. Picariello said that Trump's frequent use of "thank you for your attention to this matter" is an example of that.

The "Information" section of the BITE model, Picariello said, is perfectly illustrated in Trump's recent decision to ban the press from the White House.

If there is "any news — [the] negative news story is fake, right? So just ignore that. It's fake news. Calling the media the 'enemy of the state.' you remember when he was doing that, which is a classic authoritarian thing to do. So, you can just discount all of that and that way you're only getting your information from one or few places that agree with Trump's MAGA's point of view," he said. Meanwhile, Trump is crafting AI propaganda showing himself as strong and powerful, to reinforce the language with images.

Another is changing the names of things like the Lake of America, the Gulf of America and his recent decision to eliminate the word "artificial intelligence" and instead refer to it as "super intelligence."

Under "thought control," Picariello explained that setting up his own social media site is a good example of that. It wasn't enough that he convinced his followers to ignore unpopular news reports; now he can create his own information bubble for everyone to join in together.

"This is something that bleeds into information, obviously, right? So the information that's coming out of Truth Social is a very narrow way of looking at the world and often factually incorrect," continued Picariello. "But you're creating a thought process of how to consume information. Creating a limited vocabulary. You know, 'this is tremendous. This is the best!'"

He related it to George Orwell's 1984, which isn't merely about thought control but also changes how we think about something.

"And this is a real thing," Picariello said. "You know, it changes the wiring of your brain if you think about things enough. And then conspiracy theories. I don't have to go on [about] the 2020 election is 'the big steal.' January 6 was the Feds, or was the left wing, or was whatever[.] But, that's controlling the way we think about what should be reality. And then and then ... he acts crazy, literally crazy. He says the most ridiculous things, and then the people who support him, what do they do? They come out later and go, 'Oh no, he really didn't mean that.' Or, 'Oh, you know, Trump. He just exaggerates.'"

It's the actual gaslighting, said Picariello, saying that something isn't happening even though it's happening in front of their eyes. He compared it to The Wizard of Oz, who shouts, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"

Finally, on the list, is emotion. Fear is a big one for Trump. He said that Mexicans and other Hispanics were drug dealers and criminals, creating the classic "us vs. them" pattern of manipulation. It helps people in the group have a common enemy to work against.

"Then everybody can just focus on the enemy while nobody's sort of distracted by the ... economy or jobs or or healthcare or anything like that," he added.

Another example is when Trump labels someone who criticizes him as someone who simply "hates America."

Founded in 1989 during George H.W. Bush's presidency, the Christian fundamentalist legal group Liberty Counsel has a long history of representing white evangelicals in far-right causes. The Florida-based nonprofit has a new client: Foundations for Nations, a Wyoming church being asked to leave a Native American reservation. And Liberty Counsel is representing the church on a pro bono basis.

According to WyoFile reporter Maya Shimizu Harris, Foundations for Nations is "facing demands to leave the Wind River Indian Reservation after its pastor delivered a sermon urging Native congregants to renounce Northern Arapaho traditions has a formidable ally in its corner as tensions continue to simmer."

"Last month," Harris explains, "the Foundations for Nations church lodged a complaint with state and federal agencies against the Food Bank of Wyoming, alleging the organization unlawfully cut off its support on the basis of religious, political and racial discrimination. According to Foundations For Nations Pastor Sarah Lucas, Food Bank of Wyoming ended the partnership after her controversial sermon, telling her that it was in response to a call claiming her message was discriminatory, the Ranger reported."

Liberty Counsel, Harris reports, "filed the complaint on the church's behalf" and "is providing legal services to the church for free."

Richard Mast, senior litigation counsel for Liberty Counsel, is claiming that Foundations For Nations' situation is a free speech/freedom of religion battle.

Mast told WyoFile, "When a matter arises in their local area, we reach out to them, offer them an opportunity to participate, and we are frequently taken up on that. We appreciate our local counsel in Wyoming … People have reached out to us from Wyoming. We've come to their assistance, and at least one of those cases I recall was successful."

Over the years, Liberty Counsel has repeatedly clashed with liberal and progressive attorneys — many times, in cases involving gay rights and abortion.

"In addition to filing the discrimination complaint," Harris notes, "Liberty Counsel sent a letter to Northern Arapaho Business Council Chairman Keenan Groesbeck in July after the council had adopted a resolution stating that outside organizations should consult with the council before initiating or expanding recurring organized activities on lands governed by the Northern Arapaho Tribe. While stating that the church believes it's in compliance with the resolution, the letter asserted that the church 'requires no authorization' from the Northern Arapaho Business Council 'to conduct religious activities on its own private fee simple property,' and that the church 'will not be leaving its property.'"

Harris continues, "Following Lucas' sermon, the Northern Arapaho Business Council told church officials to leave the reservation, and some called on the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes to use the 'bad men' clause in their treaties with the U.S. government to oust the church from the reservation. But in an August 31 resolution, the Northern Arapaho Business Council stated that it doesn’t regulate activities on the church’s private property, and that it hadn't designated the church or any person as 'bad men.'"

President Donald Trump's agricultural policies are leaving one of his staunchest groups of supporters, farmers, in the lurch. As they increasingly turn against him because the Iran war, tariffs and mass deportations, a conservative newspaper — The Wall Street Journal — warns that he is leaving Republicans overall "in danger."

"While Mr. Trump can claim all he wants that foreigners pay his tariffs, Deere & Co. said on an earnings call last month that it expects 'direct tariff expense of approximately $1.1 billion for the fiscal year,'" the editorial board wrote on Wednesday. "That figure doesn’t include the refunds the company is getting for the tariffs that the Supreme Court held illegal, but it’s a show of the burden. Mr. Trump’s border taxes filter through supply chains to all kinds of parts and equipment, making it harder for farmers when they buy tractors, combines, harvesters and planters."

They added, "Likewise, Mr. Trump can say over and over that the U.S. doesn’t need anything from Canada, but the Farm Belt knows it depends on potash fertilizer from America’s northern neighbor. Mr. Trump’s latest 50 percent tariffs on Canada specifically didn’t apply to potash, which ought to be telling. Some Canadians, however, have debated using their potash as leverage against the U.S. if trade tensions escalate."

Overall they concluded that, as a result of how Trump's policies are hurting farmers, "Republicans are now in political danger in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska, states that 'oughta be fat guy layups for us,' as Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy put it last week."

They added, "If the administration wants farming in the U.S. to be easier, then stop the policies that make it harder."

Speaking with AlterNet in September, Dr. Karl Widerquist, a Georgetown University in Qatar professor, explained how Trump's policies are hurting farmers.

"The supply chains go back and forth across the border — you've gotta know what's going back and forth across the border," Widerquist told AlterNet. "You've gotta really be an expert in very specific industries. Some goods might pass the border three and four times. You'd take oil from Canada and put it in a combine in the United States to make wheat, and you send it up to Canada for processing, send it back to the United States to sell it as food, not to mention adding a bunch of packaging who knows where. You have a really complex supply chain. So tariffs aren't as simple as these. Used to be it was our industries and their industries, put a tariff on their industries, that's gonna help our industries, at least in that sector."

“Y'all know the Farm Bill is socialism; y'all know that, right?” Michael Steele said on MS NOW at the time. “I mean, when you start talking about socialism, it's socialism for you. It's not socialism when I'm accessing the system and I'm getting that SNAP check, and I'm getting that welfare check, and I'm getting that free lunch program, and I'm getting those things that, because I cannot afford it, are part of a safety net. And I wish we would just fundamentally get off our lazy behinds and start understanding how this government uses all of those tools to provide for its citizens.”

Even as President Donald Trump rages about a judge ruling on his media ban, despite the decision not yet coming in, a journalist who Trump previously banned from covering him appeared on a podcast described him as unstable — and hinted that this has ominous implications for the American people.

"There's something deeply disturbing about this moment," Jim Acosta, who Trump targeted when he worked at CNN, told podcaster Molly Jong-Fast on Wednesday. "We can laugh and whistle past the graveyard and everything, but it's not normal to want to put your name on Ford's Theatre. It's not normal to want to put your name on the Kennedy Center. It's not normal to want snipers on top of a massive arch near Arlington National Cemetery that apparently is going to be packed with ammunition."

"That's definitely going to get built, in case you're wondering," Jong-Fast interjected.

"This is very Muammar Gaddafi," Acosta continued. "This is very Saddam-Hussein-in-the-spider-hole kind of stuff. And we can ignore it — I don't ignore it, I know you don't ignore it, but a lot of people ignore it. I think it's a bad idea to ignore it. I think we're going to wake up one morning and bad stuff's going to be going down, because that's it, he's finally snapped. I think we're on the verge of that right now. When I saw the Ford's Theatre thing, I was like, 'Wow.' I thought it was as weird as it was going to get, but apparently not."

Jong-Fast replied, "We really have elevated someone who is not that interested in governance, not at all interested in policy, super interested in narcissistic honoring of himself. And also, his frontal lobe is not functioning in the way you would want a frontal lobe to function."

Acosta agreed, replying that "I think it would not be a bad idea for things to be studied by scientists years from now."

Acosta is not alone in criticizing Trump's seeming lack of stability. On a psychological level, Dr. David M. Reiss — a psychiatrist who contributed to the book “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President" — told AlterNet in September that Trump is clearly mentally deteriorating but benefits from a media that refuses to call this out.

"The press is treating it as if this is just him," Reiss told AlterNet. "No, this is a very disturbed — in a vernacular, deranged — person. He says things that don't make sense, goes on for two hours. This is not normal behavior, not productive behavior, and obviously a lot of it is lies. So the diagnosis really isn't relevant. What's relevant is: if this was a friend, if this was a relative, would you say this person needs help if they're not getting it — and if they are getting it, they should see a different doctor because it's not being treated effectively."

A different expert argued in June that Trump is also suffering from a physical decline.

“There is no tool for using A.I. to make that kind of a statement that is accepted in the cardiology community,” Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist who specializes in aging, told The New York Times. “It hasn’t been validated to a point where it could be used for biological age versus chronological age.”

He later added, “The doctors deserve praise and he deserves praise because of managing his cholesterol,” but noted that the doctors have been sparing about important details regarding his cardiovascular health. “It’s possible he has no buildup, but that should be specifically presented.”

After President Donald Trump chose former Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) to replace the fired Kristi Noem as secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed Alan Armstrong to temporarily fill the U.S. Senate seat. But Oklahoma voters will decide who fills the seat for a full term. In the meantime, according to Washington Sun reporter Reese Gorman, an "internal fight" among Oklahoma Republicans is "boiling over" as they "vie to fill the last two months of former Sen. Markwayne Mullin's term."

"The dispute is over when Sen. Alan Armstrong's temporary term ends and the next Oklahoma senator — likely Rep. Kevin Hern — would be sworn in," Gorman reports in the Washington Sun. "Hern wants to be sworn into the Senate in November following the election, while Armstrong wants to stay on through January."

In the general election, Hern is up against Democratic nominee N'Kiyla Jasmine Thomas.

Oklahoma law, Gorman notes, states, "The candidate elected to the office at the regularly scheduled election shall be deemed to also have been elected to fill the vacancy and shall be eligible to assume the office upon the official certification of the election by the State Election Board."

"According to multiple sources familiar with the matter," Gorman reports, "Hern's team believes the law would allow Hern — if he wins the election — to be sworn into the Senate in November, as Oklahoma must certify the election within seven days of it being completed. However, Armstrong's team believes the law is less clear and that he was appointed to serve out the remainder of now- Secretary of Homeland Security Mullin's term, which ends in early January. Armstrong wants to stay on at least until legislation on permitting reform gets done, sources tell The Washington Sun. There's a chance that happens in the lame-duck session."

Gorman adds, "All this has caused a rift between the two members, sources say."

Hern, according to Gorman, is being represented by Glenn Coffee — a well-known attorney in Oklahoma — while Stitt is "pushing for" Armstrong "to remain in office until January."

"On September 11," Gorman reports, "an attorney representing Armstrong sent a letter, which The Sun obtained, to Stitt asking that he request the attorney general's opinion on the matter. In the letter, the lawyer says, 'The upcoming Senate election is not intended to determine who will succeed to the few remaining weeks' of the term. Armstrong's attorney said that 'Senator Armstrong seeks an opinion addressing whether his appointment continues until the 120th Congress convenes on January 3, 2027, or terminates immediately upon certification and qualification of a new Senator elected at the upcoming election.'"

Gorman continues, "Multiple sources told The Sun that Stitt has not yet requested the attorney general's opinion on the matter. However, on Tuesday, State Senate Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton requested an opinion from State Attorney General Gentner Drummond on when the next senator would get sworn in."

President Donald Trump's latest outburst was reportedly inspired by anger at one particular news network, and one of its top anchors has a theory about why he decided to go after three outlets instead of just the one.

The White House this week enacted Trump's demand to ban MS NOW, CNN and Politico from the White House, with the president accusing the networks of "constantly" reporting "fake news" about him. The move was widely condemned as a blatant attack on the First Amendment, prompting a lawsuit from the targeted networks and a boycott by the entire White House press pool.

Despite also banning CNN and Politico, subsequent reports revealed that Trump's outburst was inspired by a montage of only MS NOW anchors saying negative things about him, which was shown to him by close aide Natalie Harp. In a Wednesday interview with Pod Save America co-host Jon Lovett, Rachel Maddow, the veteran correspondent and top anchor at MS NOW, said that the press ban lined up with a theory she has developed for why the president has not targeted her network more often, despite how often they report stories that are critical of him.

"I have always had this theory that Trump doesn't come after MS NOW more than he does other news organizations — even though I think of all the mainstream media organizations, we're probably the most critical of him," Maddow explained. "I've always thought that he maybe doesn't come after us in a more concerted way because he's talked himself into the idea that that will help us, right? That that will elevate us, and so he shouldn't pay us attention because we're always going to be, you know, who we are and that it'll only help us, and therefore hurt him to give us too much attention."

She continued: "So he decides to sort of diffuse the attention on us by bringing in these other news organizations. But in so doing, he ends up taking this swipe that just seems sort of weird and inchoate and also very clarifying to the news business that this is the kind of thing that we ought to all stand up against together."

Elsewhere in the interview, Lovett pressed Maddow about what her immediate reaction was upon hearing about Trump's ban on MS NOW and other networks. As she explained, after it became clear that it was a real thing and not just a threat, the ban made it clear to her how desperate Trump has become.

"Oh, he's playing the hits," Maddow said. "Like. this is him doing the YMCA two-fisted dance. This is him doing a thing that he knows he can get the kind of reaction that he wants from the people who love him the most or the people who share his authoritarian, you know, dreams with him. And he's just hoping to return to safer ground. He wants the kind of attention that he wants, and he's getting attention for all sorts of stuff that he doesn't want. For having this record-low approval rating, and for the economy being in the toilet, and the Iran war, and the impending midterms, and all of his, like, falling asleep in public, and like, it's all bad news about him right now. So he wants to go back to playing the hits, getting the kind of attention that he wants on the terms that he wants it, and I think that's why he did it."

The reports that President Donald Trump's aides are now looking at putting his name on Ford's Theatre are not going over well with the city's residents and top politicos who remain residents after their time in public office.

Conservative Bill Kristol took to X to complain, "Donald Trump is a sick man. You almost feel you can't hold him fully responsible for his deep psychological deformities. I have more contempt for his aides who, humoring him, feed his illness and encourage him to do symbolic and real damage to the nation."

Kristol was not alone in his outrage.

"What is this dudes obsession with putting his name everywhere?" asked one Navy veteran with over 200,000 followers, who monitors global conflicts on X.

The influential "Wu Tang is for the children," quipped that it's a solution that "will definitely help lower diesel prices." Diesel prices have been going up since Trump went to war with Iran.

One person suggested that Trump "stick to Florida" when it comes to naming things after himself. Trump famously got local officials to rename the federal airport after himself.

Political writer Mona Burns questioned if it was even real. "This is so ridiculous that it has to be distraction desperation."

Financial analyst and political independent Steven Thomas joked, "Apple and Google are ready for the name change."

The theater was once the First Baptist Church of Washington until entrepreneur John T. Ford leased the building in 1961 and turned into a music hall called Ford’s Athenaeum, the website's history details. It is now a federally-owned property with the U.S. Department of the Interior and National Park Service managing it.

Trump has failed to add his name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, resulting in public outbursts by the president claiming he may simply rip it down. A federal judge has now stepped in to block both Trump's name, likeness or anything else being attached to the building. Ford's Theatre appears to be his latest alternative.

One person with knowledge told MS NOW it would be an easier legal pathway than the Kennedy Center. While the federal government (NPS) owns and preserves the building and the house nearby where Lincoln was taken and pronounced dead, the non-profit Ford's Theatre Society manages the live productions and arts programming.

A formal change to put Trump’s name into the official name of Ford’s Theatre would almost certainly require Congress to pass a new federal law as the official designation of the site comes from a 1970 statute. That is unlikely unless Republicans can accomplish it during the post-election session. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sent members home early last week with no return date before the Nov. 3 election. Among the first things that must be voted on once they return is the impeachment of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

The MS NOW report summarized a list of things Trump has put his name on since taking office for the second time.

"In addition to the Kennedy Center, his appointees have renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace for him; put his likeness on U.S. passports, an NPS pass and a 24-karat gold $1 coin; hung large banners adorned with his face outside the departments of Justice, Labor and Agriculture; moved ahead with plans for a 250-foot “triumphal” arch near Arlington National Cemetery; discussed opening a promenade at the Lincoln Memorial; demolished the East Wing of the White House to make way for a new ballroom built to his specifications; and paved over the White House’s Rose Garden for a Mar-a-Lago-style patio," the list read.

There are other discussions about Trump changing the names of New York's Penn Station and the Dulles International Airport in Virginia. Even the new Washington Commanders stadium is on the list of possible sites for Trump's self-promotion.

With only weeks left until the midterm elections, a growing tide of Republican candidates is distancing themselves from President Donald Trump, with the trend becoming so apparent that it even made headlines at the conservative National Review.

Writing for the outlet on Wednesday, senior correspondent Jim Geraghty wrote that Republicans are taking a line from the band The Police when it comes to handling Trump: "Don't Stand So Close to Me."

"GOP candidates running for office could only appear connected to a president with a high-30-something job approval rating for so long," he wrote. "This week, everywhere you look, Republicans are emphasizing that they want the war against Iran to end, and will do whatever it takes to bring down unleaded gasoline prices and diesel prices. Whether or not you believe the current public polls suggesting GOP doom accurately represent the mood of the electorate, Republicans who want to win in November are acting like their internal polling matches those public polls."

Geraghty proceeded to compile an extensive list of all the Republicans trying to get some distance from the president, both loudly and quietly, starting with Florida Rep. María Elvira Salazar, who turned heads with a recent ad critiquing Trump for going too far with his mass deportation agenda. He also mentioned Byron Donalds, the Florida gubernatorial nominee, who was caught scrubbing his website of Trump mentions, following a similar tack to Rep. Young Kim, "who often faces tough reelection bids in her R+1 southern California district."

Michigan Senate nominee Mike Rogers, oft noted as a longtime war hawk, broke with Trump in a new ad where he state, "The war in Iran needs to end, to bring costs down."

"Iowa GOP representatives Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks joined in a vote to limit Trump’s war powers last week," Geraghty added. "Both lawmakers represent competitive districts, and this marked the first time either one had voted to rein in Trump’s Iran war powers. Nunn wrote on X, 'With the negotiating window closed, sustained combat operations now require congressional authorization. Having deployed multiple times and flown over 700 combat hours in the Middle East, I will not support another open-ended war.' Ashley Hinson, a GOP representative who’s running for governor in Iowa, wrote on X Monday, 'Iowans are being squeezed and shouldn’t have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line for the war in Iran.'"

Other examples listed included Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany, Colorado Rep. Jeff Hurd and New Hampshire Senate nominee John Sununu. Summing up the trend, Geraghty suggested, "It’s as if someone flipped a switch."

"Some might argue that Republicans more openly criticizing Trump is the sound of impending lame-duckhood, but Trump will still run the executive branch for a bit more than two years, and have the biggest megaphone in politics," Geraghty wrote. "He just won’t have quite as many GOP legislators willing to assent to whatever he wants on any given day."

President Donald Trump's administration submitted an overnight filing in his lawsuit involving the ban of certain members of the press. One constitutional lawyer is warning that there are fatal flaws in the filing that could sink the case.

According to the filing, reporting about Trump's ballroom construction and the Iran war "could" endanger national security. Speaking to CNN Wednesday morning, Seth Berenzweig quibbled with the national security elements of the case.

Trump's legal team "talked about publishing with respect to the preparation and building of the bunker, the administration and the Justice Department talked about disclosure with respect to munitions and other aspects of interceptors. So, you know, it is going to be, frankly, an uphill battle by both sides."

Trump has been the one to reveal many of the specifics about the projects the DOJ listed in Tuesday's filing. Aboard Air Force One, Trump said, “The military is building a big complex under the ballroom." He went on to describe the ballroom as “essentially” becoming “a shed for what’s being built under,” National Public Radio said.

Axios reported that Trump said as said the underground facility will be six stories deep and is being constructed by the military. Trump said in his own public court filing that the bunker would include bomb shelters, a hospital and major medical facilities, secured communications and telecommunications systems and bio-defense infrastructure.

Trump claimed in 2022 that a president could declassify documents “just by saying it’s declassified” and then went further, adding “even by thinking about it.” He's made it clear that as president, he has the broad authority to disclose information to the public.

"One of the unique elements of where we sit today is that this is an emergency injunction hearing," Berenzweig said. "Specifically, the media is asking for a TRO, a temporary restraining order, and what that does, as kind of a unique legal animal, is it takes the end of the train and kind of puts it up to the front. In other words, the legal standard is whether the plaintiff can demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits. That's a hard standard."

The White House press pool is there to report on what the president says publicly and to ask questions at the briefing, among other things. The administration is still publicly releasing that information, either through other media outlets, as the ban applies only to select networks in the press pool. In fact, the White House has started its own "Trump TV" channel to release the same information that would otherwise go out through the press pool.

Berenzweig also thinks that the press' argument about due process isn't as strong as its argument about the First Amendment.

"I think that that is a viable argument. That's really where I think Judge Kelly is going to come down today," he said about U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, presiding over the case. "And regardless of who wins or loses, one of the elements and aspects of injunction litigation is, this these cases are very fast-tracked. This is going to be resolved. The entire case, frankly, is going to be resolved within a matter of days, if not more than just another week or two. It's very front-loaded. There will probably be a ruling. We'll probably get it by close of business today, so it'll be interesting to see what happens in this fast-moving case."

However, the due process argument he cited was also used by former White House reporter for CNN, Jim Acosta, who claimed that his credentials were taken away without even an ability to respond. That same judge now presides over the new case, Politico recalled in a Tuesday report.

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Although conservative Anthony Scaramucci briefly served in the first Trump administration, he is very much in the Never Trump camp now and endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in 2024. Scaramucci is highly critical of Donald Trump's second presidency, and during a Wednesday morning conversation with MS NOW's Stephanie Ruhle, he predicted that Trump will issue pardons for himself and members of his family if more Republicans turn against him in the months ahead.

GOP senators have often been deferential to Trump since his return to the White House, voting to confirm many of his most controversial nominees. But Scaramucci, during his MS NOW appearance, predicted that more Republicans will come out against Trump as his popularity continues to plummet.

Ruhle told Scaramucci, "Another break from Trump: Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah, he is now calling for the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate the business dealings and relationships of presidential family members, including a report that a Russian oligarch helped pay for the wedding after-party of Don Jr. You know Don Jr. and the Trump family very well; you and I have talked about this over the course of the last two years and the extraordinary money they have made — sort of, with reckless abandon, like, come at me, bro, you can't take me down. And now, you've got a Republican in Utah saying, hold on a minute."

Scaramucci predicted that more Republicans will rebel against the Trump family's "corruption."

The Never Trump conservative told Ruhle, "It's not a glass ceiling, Stephanie — it's a concrete ceiling for a lot of people when they look at that sort of corruption. But I think the most interesting thing you said is that Republicans want to look into this. And so, I think that's where the fissure is, and that's where the crack is. And I think a lot of Republicans, in the next six weeks, are going to break from the president due to his unpopularity. Moreover, if they end up losing the Senate, I make a prediction, here on your show: The president will start pardoning his family members."

Scaramucci continued, "He may even pardon himself before the term is over. And like it or not, he'll point to the Hunter Biden pardon and say: well, I'm pardoning all my family members. And he'll do the whataboutism that politicians do about these perimeters of corruption .... But I think it's a bad sign for the president that the Republicans are finally coming and they're finally cracking on this issue."