News & Politics

President Donald Trump snapped at a reporter again on Thursday when the reporter asked a softball question, and "Morning Joe" hosts acknowledged his age is clearly showing.

After an event in South Carolina, Trump was asked by a Reuters reporter if he was "sick of traveling" all over the country for the events.

"Oh, you are sick to ask that question," Trump says, beginning to walk away. "You are sick. Who you with? You are a sick guy! Reuters is terrible, by the way. Look at this guy — he's way out of shape... You are disgusting. Put yourself in shape. You look like hell."

The White House rapid response account is playing it off like the reporter said something horrific that warranted the response from the president. "@POTUS absolutely DESTROYS Fake News @jacobbogage," they wrote.

"Uhhhhhh," Joe Scarborough said at the top of the show after the video aired. He noted that Trump's rant about the "out of shape" and that the reporter was mentally ill was a bit of "the pot calling the kettle black."

"Donald Trump is giving lectures now on people's mental health. Just a couple of things. Number one, what he's saying about canceling and why he canceled is a lie. Yesterday afternoon, I got a call from Republican operatives who said, and I am quoting them, this race has been gone for a week. That's what Republicans are saying. Democrats were shocked that the president canceled at the last minute, but they did so because they feel like Roger Marshall has blown that race," said Scarborough.

"What is so what should be so troubling for people inside the White House and for Americans who actually care if they have a president who's like there is people are asking him very simple, basic questions, and he's just flying off in an absolute rage," Scarborough continued.

He said it has been going on for about a month, with basic questions anyone would ask a president.

"This one flies off in this crazed rage, and you just kind of worry if he's okay? I'm worried about him," Scarborough confessed.

Jonathan Lemier noted that aides inside the White House have been saying for a while that the president simply can't hear anymore and he frequently must lean in and ask people to repeat themselves. As his niece Mary Trump has noted several times, Trump doesn't like to show weakness. So needing a hearing aid would likely make him feel weak, even if it meant he could hear what people were saying.

"He clearly misheard the question the reporter asked: Are you sick of traveling? And Trump didn't hear the traveling part and responded like, oh, you think I'm sick? And that's what prompted that whole thing," he added.

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Some republicans are secretly celebrating as President Donald Trump abruptly cancels his weekend rallies in Iowa and Kansas in favor of holding numerous tele-rallies.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins said that sources indicated some Republican officials are “relieved” to see the president staying home. On The Source Thursday, she quoted one top GOP official who, with the in-person rallies canceled, was quoted as saying, “Thank God, he hasn’t moved the needle anywhere.” Another was quoted as saying, “Everyone has seen the president who wants to see him.”

The White House has tried to put a positive spin on the move to virtual events. In a statement to the Daily Beast, an official said:

“President Trump will continue connecting directly with Americans nationwide through more than 20 telerallies before Election Day. These events give him the opportunity to highlight his accomplishments and expand his reach across the country.”

The news comes as a number of GOP candidates have put some distance between themselves and Trump in light of his unpopularity. With a Democratic sweep of Congress a strong possibility in next week’s midterms, Trump had a fit with a reporter on Oct. 29 over the matter of the canceled campaign stop in Kansas.

“Oh, you’re sick to ask that question. You are sick,” the president told the man from Reuters when he was put to task on whether the trip was called off because the president was “sick of traveling.”

“Look at this guy. He’s way out of shape,” Trump said. “You know what the reason is? I don’t feel I have to go to Kansas. I’m going to Florida tomorrow” for a Friday rally in Daytona Beach. “You’ve been following me for two weeks. I feel perfect. You are disgusting. Put yourself in shape. You look like hell.”

Collins described the reporter's question as "straightforward," and he was not implying that Trump was ill. She added that it "says a lot" that he snapped at a question concerning his health. She also played a supercut of the president speaking about the toll his packed campaign rally schedule is taking on him.

Trump has put on more than two dozen rallies in the final stretch of the midterm drive to fire up the MAGA base, but in places like Kansas his approval ratings are underwater in the polls, which is a risk for his candidates.

The event in Salina due for Oct. 31 was canceled on the 29th, and the RNC has said there will be no rally in Iowa on Nov. 1 either.

President Donald Trump celebrated Halloween at the White House on Thursday with the first lady and then did a flyover the White House using his new Qatari jet. But the act terrified people who were in Washington during the Sept. 11 attacks.

A video uploaded from the White House celebrated the flyover: “An epic Air Force One flyover at the White House for the trick-or-treaters!”

"In a city that still vividly remembers the deadly 2025 crash near Reagan National Airport and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the flyover caused some concern," said a Washington Post report.

According to the report citing flight tracking data, the plane's "altitude was between about 400 feet and about 1,000 feet."

The Washington D.C. city council account posted, "This flyover provided just fifteen minutes notice to anyone in downtown DC, at the Pentagon, or at National Airport. It startled many, including us."

Washington D.C. is a "no-fly zone," and that zone extends well into Virginia and Maryland after Sept. 11. So, residents of the city don't hear planes flying overhead. The only air travel is military, police, hospitals and Trump's administration. That means seeing a plane flying that low immediately brought back memories of the low-flying Flight 77 that hit the Pentagon.

There was a brief ground stop at National Airport for the flyover, but an alert was sent out without much time for people to be informed it would happen.

“I’m probably being that person, but that flyover in DC right now was very scary. Essentially no heads up that it would be happening and it sounded like a regular commercial plane,” one person wrote on X. “I don’t mind jets but I actually thought a plane was going to crash.”

One social media user wrote on X that the plane was flying “crazy low for a 747.”

“I’m used to flyovers in DC,” they added. “But this one scared me.”

Victoria Chamberlin, senior producer and editor for "Interesting Times" from the New York Times opinion section posted, "Air Force One low flying over our heads in DC feels like a cruel trick without warning. This picture doesn’t do it justice but it flew right over a family Halloween event in otherwise restricted air space at a tilt and altitude that made wonder if this was it lol.”

Someone replied calling her a "moron" and asking whether they should call or text her next time. She brought up the Sept. 11 attacks as well, adding, "So yeah, Kevin. Comms across social and news media prior to 5:24pm that a low alt 747 is circling would be great."

"I straight up yelled," said Chris Cardno on X.

Another D.C. resident commented, "Those of us who lived through 9/11 don’t find this s—— entertaining. At all."

She was flooded with comments, one person called out "little angry boys crying in the comments." She noted her apartment was shaking. She told several people that folks only knew that it was Air Force One after the fact. For people who aren't glued to flight trackers and the slapdash announcements, people didn't know whose plane it was or why it was flying so low.

Many agreed if the announcement had gone out a day before or even 5 hours before, as the White House has done with other flyovers, it likely wouldn't have terrified residents.

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins may have harbored some hard feelings over President Donald Trump’s Thursday attack on Reuters reporter Jacob Bogage, if a brutal Thursday night supercut was any indication.

Trump lit into Bogage after the reporter asked if he was canceling a campaign rally in Kansas for Republican Sen. Roger Marshall due to being tired of traveling. Trump snapped: "Oh, you're sick to ask that question. You are sick."

He then continued to insult Bogage, calling him "disgusting" and "way out of shape."

"You've been following me for two weeks. I feel perfect. You are disgusting. Put yourself in shape. You look like hell," Trump barked before storming off.

“Now, that reporter from Reuters … asked a straightforward question about the president's schedule, and he got an irritated answer, as you heard there, especially given it's the president himself who has touted his own ability to maintain a busy schedule,” said Collins, before rolling out the supercut.

“It is so — the one thing I can say is that no president has ever worked so hard on a midterm,” said Trump at a recent rally in South Carolina.

“Nobody's ever campaigned like I have for midterms,” insisted Trump at a Monday rally in Mississippi.

“I've been doing this stuff for a week and a half, two weeks,” said Trump at a Tuesday presentation in Lubbock, Texas. “I did more rallies than I've ever done for myself.”

“You know, I've done 26 of them now,” Trump boasted in Corpus Christi, Texas on Tuesday.

“I have worked very hard,” Trump told Fox News in a recent interview. “I've done 14 rallies in nine days. And that's a lot.”

“I'm going to Georgia, but, uh, it's a strain on your voice,” Trump said Saturday in Palm Beach Florida. “It's a strain, you know. It's not normal.”

“I'm doing something different,” Trump said in October. “I'm working like a dog.”

But there's another reason why canceling these final two rallies of the 2026 midterms stands out, said Collins — especially considering in the final 72 hours before the 2018 midterms Trump held back-to-back rallies in Montana, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana and Missouri. Back then Trump told his team he wanted to be on the road as much as possible in those final few days as voters were casting their ballots to help Republicans.

“Tonight, sources say, though, that some Republican officials are relieved by the president's decision to cancel those final two rallies,” said Collins. “One top Republican official told my colleague, Jeff Zeleny, ‘thank God he hasn't moved the needle anywhere,’ and a second official assuring ‘everyone who has seen the president who wants to see him.’”

Even Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, who the president was expected to go and rally on his behalf, appeared indifferent to Trump’s canceled plans, saying “I think that my doing so well in the polls that he's got probably got better places to spend his time.”

“Now, we don't have insight into the senator's polling, but a brand-new CNN poll actually found that Marshall's race is still very close,” quipped Collins, pointing to a survey showing Democrat Adam Hamilton outpacing Marshall by four points, at 49 percent to 45 percent.

“If there's been a surge in [Marshall’s] numbers, we have not seen it materialize yet in the polling,” Collins assured.

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President Donald Trump’s biographer Michael Wolff said the president’s henchmen are already burning up their Rolodexes, Daily Beast reports, scouring for lawyers to clean up the mess that Trump’s corruption is going to make of their careers.

Speaking on his “Inside Trump’s Head podcast,” Wolff said that a Republican loss in next week’s midterms could leave the president’s inner circle facing blowback from both Trump and a soon-to-be Democratic Congress that is gunning for investigations.

“I think the implosion will be intense,” said Wolff. “We will return to the worst days of the first administration. … Everybody’s job will be up in the air. Everybody will be blamed by Trump for losing this election — certainly he will not take any blame, so it will be put on everyone else. And everyone then also will be facing the wrath of the Democrats.”

“This [election] is almost everything, and everybody’s careers will pivot around what happens Tuesday night,” Wolff added. “It potentially changes everything for everyone.”

Wolff explained that next week’s election is “life or death” for Trump’s people — especially those in the White House, but also for people who’ve emitted the smell of corruption in the two years of Trump’s second term. Democrats, he predicted, will try to resist impeaching Donald Trump again, knowing Republicans in the Senate will protect him. Instead, they will focus their firepower on the people around him.

Co-host Joanna Coles pointed out that that Democrats have already announced plans to investigate or impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Wolff pointed to Attorney General Todd Blanche as another high target.

“Todd Blanche in the last number of months, I mean most, vividly, has become the chief enabler of Donald Trump,” said Wolff, according to Daily beast. “He may not have been the most brilliant lawyer in the world, but he certainly knows that the actions that he’s taken against these people who Trump has a grudge against have no chance of succeeding in court, but he has to do them anyway because Donald Trump tells him to do them.”

In fact, “the first thing that everybody is going to have to think about is getting a lawyer,” Wolf quipped. “It is existential. Everything changes, which is such a weird — if you think about it — weird world to be working in; that you could go from ... the most powerful people in the country to the most beleaguered people in the country in a matter of hours.”

Coles predicted that Democrats will “just start firing subpoenas” at the White House. But if that happens, Wolff predicts Trump will make sure his loyalists catch the worst of it, rather than him as he maneuvers to blame those around him.

“We’re talking the exact opposite of a celebratory mood [after the elections,” said Wolff. “It’ll be everybody’s funeral.”

Conservative National Review writer Noah Rothman is throwing in the towel on Republicans this year. There’s really nothing for it now, he says, but for the party to learn from its mistakes — and there’s so very much to learn.

“Republicans are set to endure another defeat. And perhaps this time, they’ll even take a moment to consider why voters turned their backs on the party,” said Rothman. “That would be a rare thing for the GOP in the Trump years.”

This is because President Donald Trump “short-circuited the process” that Rothman said typically culminates in parties coming to terms with loss after his 2020 defeat. Instead, after losing without conceding, Trump convinced Republican voters and lawmakers that they hadn’t really lost at all. Likewise, the party learned nothing from its dismal 2022 midterm performance.

“With recriminations flying over his abysmal taste in candidates and Ron DeSantis’s star rising, Trump brushed aside Republicans who urged him to take a beat before announcing his return to politics,” said Rothman. “Within a week of the GOP’s underwhelming performance, Trump was a presidential candidate again, stifling an evaluation of his failures by those best positioned to address them.”

And today, instead of examining where all they’ve gone wrong, Republicans are trying to sow doubt about the legitimacy of likely Democratic victories, so that the GOP “may thus once again cheat itself out of a valuable confrontation with defeat and refuse to incorporate the voters’ verdict into their appeals to the American electorate that should accompany that bitter experience.”

But elections aren’t just for voters “to blow off steam,” argues Rothman.

“They are a crucial feedback mechanism. They stave off sclerotic government and tunnel vision in its elected officials,” he said. “They remind complacent administrations who their constituents are by diluting the influence of powerful and moneyed interests. They help systems dispense with incompetent or exhausted officials, and they surface information otherwise invisible to cosseted central authorities.”

They’re not just here for appearance, Rothman raged. They serve a practical purpose.

“… [T]he parties that take their electoral losses seriously often benefit in the long run,” said Rothman, referencing Democrats’ failures in 1988, which he said shifted the party away from “flaccid, enervated leftism that had allowed America’s cities to crumble and its welfare rolls to balloon.”

Similarly, Britain’s Labour Party readjusted itself during the Margaret Thatcher years when the party got shutout, giving Tony Blair the chance to move away from the “nationalization of industry … as crime spiraled, wages stagnated, and public spending ballooned.”

It’s not like Republican self-assessment has to get too deep, said Rothman. It’s very clear where the party has gone wrong.

“The voters wanted 2019 back when they went to the polls in November 2024. What they got was an administration besotted with protectionist schemes that increased consumer costs, a war … for which their support was never solicited, an unscrupulous campaign of retribution and abuse targeting Trump’s critics, and a cast of … figures who don’t even seem self-conscious about working the levers of government to line their own pockets.”

If the party gets dumped next week, it will be because “the voters are telling the party something.”

“Those who care about its future would be wise to listen,” Rothman concluded.

President Donald Trump and many economists claim the U.S. economy is pumping along on all cylinders — but if you take that claim to Americans, you’re probably in for a fight.

“Unemployment and layoffs are historically low. Consumer spending data suggest that Americans are splurging on things like live entertainment, travel and eating out. The economy is growing at its fastest pace in a year,” reports Bloomberg. “[but] by many measures, people are miserable.”

A significant percentage of Americans say the economy feels “stacked against them” and polls show they are stressed over about the cost of living, they’re anxious about job security, and most certainly pessimistic about their economic future.

“And don’t even get them started on gasoline prices,” said Bloomberg reporter Jeffrey Sparshott.

Americans are still struggling with sticker shock as prices continue to rise, even as Republican strategists try to make the case that at least the rate of inflation is slower than it has been in the past. But consumers don’t care about the rate of the rise, if the numbers are already too high to match their comparably stagnant paychecks.

“Americans’ hourly earnings are, on average, up about one-third since the end of 2019. But adjusted for inflation, pay has barely kept up with rising prices,” said Sparshott. “And even the marginal gains Americans have made are beginning to evaporate. Inflation-adjusted pay was down from a year earlier for six straight months as of September.”

Worse, Sparshott said many consumers “are simply locked out” of the economy.

“Entry-level college graduates have had an especially tough time cracking the job market, and the ranks of long-term unemployed are growing,” he argued, despite sector-specific strength and a low unemployment rate masking a sluggish job market.

“Employers aren’t laying off many workers, but overall they aren’t hiring many workers, either. That’s left some people feeling stuck in place,” he said. In fact, Glassdoor’s employee confidence index, which measures worker optimism, says that confidence fell in September to the lowest level in the survey’s 10-year history.

And consumer savings? Forget it, said Sparshott. Wages are the main contributor to income for most Americans up until retirement, but sluggish wage growth alongside ballooning prices have “forced many to save less — or not save at all.”

Another weird characteristic of the Trump economy is how Republicans themselves feel about it, said Sparshott.

People generally feel better about their economy when their party is in the White House. After Trump was reelected president in 2024, consumer sentiment surged among Republicans and dropped among Democrats even before his inauguration.

“But since the start of 2026, measures of sentiment have slumped across political affiliation, geography and income, suggesting a wide swath of Americans harbor concerns about the economy,” Sparshott said.

Right-wing enthusiasts over at Blaze Media are seeing shark fins circling President Donald Trump and MAGA in the aftermath of the disastrous election for Trumpy Brazilian candidate Flávio Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro fled Brazil after losing a presidential election against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Even as Bolsonaro called himself the nation’s legitimate leader he fled to Miami after a Brazilian Supreme Court justice ordered him to surrender his passports in connection with a money-laundering investigation. His father, Jair Bolsonaro, is already serving a 27-year sentence for corruption.

But Blaze Media writer Auron MacIntyre says MAGA would be fools to not see the threat rolling in from Brazil.

“Republicans should prepare to defend the constitutional order while they still have the power to do so. Nobody is coming to save us,” warned MacIntyre.

Even if an independent agency did argue that the MAGA-curious Bolsonaros were cheated out of a victory, MacIntyre complains that it is unlikely that a government or international body is willing to take action to pressure Brazil into removing Lula and installing Flávio. Lula remains in office, and, as MacIntyre describes it, he “will be allowed to further consolidate power and punish his enemies,” putting Brazilian conservatives in an “increasingly dangerous political situation.”

But even as Trump sics his DOJ on liberal politicians and his perceived political enemies, MacIntyre warns that “American conservatives should recognize the danger” coming out of Brazil for MAGA.

“Donald Trump lost a bitterly contested election in 2020, fought the result in court, faced criminal prosecutions connected to efforts to overturn it, and eventually returned to the White House. The parallels are hard to miss,” said MacIntyre. “When judges and prosecutors become participants in an all-or-nothing political struggle, appeals to their neutrality will satisfy fewer and fewer Americans.”

“Meanwhile, American progressives are making plans for a new institutional crisis of their own,” MacIntyre claimed, even as Republicans dither away their flimsy congressional majority.

“To call congressional Republicans a total failure may be too generous,” said MacIntyre. “Failure assumes they were trying.”

Instead, he complains Republicans are trying to “run out the clock on Trump and wait for MAGA to loosen its hold on the party.” They would rather preserve their place in a “failing political arrangement and throw the country into chaos” rather than confront and toss the liberal establishment that has it out for Trump.

“Conservatives had better understand what time it is,” warned MacIntyre. “A stern lecture about civic responsibility will not stop a riot. Brilliant arguments about separation of powers will not restrain officials determined to bend the rules. A court’s seal does not make every political judgment impartial. If a constitutional crisis arrives, the right will need more than faith that its opponents will play fair.” The Bolsonaros can flee to Trump’s America, but MAGA has “nowhere else to go.”

“There will be no neutral power waiting offshore to repair our institutions, no foreign president to return the country to us,” he cautioned.

Zeteo reports Republican operatives and lawmakers are freaking out as President Donald Trump continues to tear down walls and break new barriers — for the other team.

“They’re bleeding us in Kansas,” a GOP lawmaker on the Hill told reporter Asawin Suebsaeng this week, as the Republican Party flails in places it never expected.

Once a credit to the party for his ability to draw a cultlike MAGA legion, Trump is now a sinking anchor and a pariah driving away precisely the kind of independent Americans Republicans need to stay afloat. The personal blows to the president just keep coming as Trump gets sidelined by his most dependable media supporters. Even Fox News has reduced its coverage of his campaign rallies as disenchanted MAGA followers tune out and the company loses viewership. According to a new CNN analysis, the network, which once broadcast Trump's speeches in full, no longer does so routinely. And new Nielsen figures show Fox losing 27 percent of its total-day audience in October compared with the same month last year.

But now the pain is hitting in outlandish places as Republicans bewail the party having to invest money and resources in what was formerly bastions of deep-red politics.

“These Republicans all think it’s, in the words of a Trump White House official, ‘inexcusable’ that Kansas was ever in play, even in the current environment,” said Zeteo reporter Asawain Suebsaeng. “Several sources have told me they are prepared to at least partly blame [Trump-backed senatorial candidate Roger] Marshall if the GOP and Trump suffer a historic ‘bloodbath’ next week.”

And even if Marshall manages to beat his Democratic opponent Adam Hamilton, “a solid number of elite Republicans would be happy to hurl some of the blame at their own man,” said Suebsaeng.

“Whether this is cynical scapegoating or a fair assessment, the thinking goes: We may very well lose Ohio, Texas, and elsewhere because we had to waste time and money bailing YOU out,” said Suebsaeng, summarizing the claims of GOP operatives.

“These GOP sources tell me that many of the senator’s Republican cohorts, including other lawmakers on Capitol Hill, are absolutely furious with him, and at the fact that the party and Trump’s outside political operation have had to plow a significant amount of resources and millions of dollars into defending Kansas – again, Kansas! – of all places,” reports Suebsaeng.

And it does not help that Trump is plummeting in popularity while Marshall himself “uniquely resented on the Hill, not by Dems but by other conservatives who find him, among other things, lazy, stubborn, and not a team player,” Suebsaeng said.

Zeteo reports that President Donald Trump and Republicans are “engaging in an all-out effort to challenge the results of next week’s midterm elections in a desperate campaign to cling to power” for the next two years. But sources inside the White House confirm that Trump is personally issuing the marching orders — regardless of the damage it does to American democracy.

“The president and the White House are steering all of this,” a Trump adviser told Zeteo.

The Trump administration is already spreading unfounded fears of noncitizen voting, in what Zeteo writers Justin Glawe and Asawin Suebsaeng describe as “selectively and vindictively targeting political opponents and liberal state leaders.” They’re also conducting arrests and threatening to criminally prosecute Democratic election officials, and they’re strong-arming the politicized Justice Department to argue in court that an election isn’t legally legitimate unless Trump’s side is the winner in it.

“To help sway the election in Republicans’ favor, the DOJ is apparently violating its own policies by attempting to interfere with how states administer elections and determine the validity of votes,” reports Zeteo. “And even as its lawsuits flounder, the Trump-Vance administration has zero intention of taking its foot off the gas between now and Election Night, and possibly beyond.”

The dark cloud looming over November consists of three scenarios that have election officials "holding their breath,” reports Zeteo. This includes the prospect of the president installing military troops or federal law enforcement in polling locations. It could also include attempts to block the certification of valid election results, either by lawsuit or by outright seizing ballots or voting machines. And Trump himself has suggested he might challenge the election victories of Democrats if Republicans are not victorious in certain elections.

“Again: Trump has refused to rule any of this out,” reports Zeteo, “and has indeed test-run preliminary versions of each authoritarian power grab.”

According to sources speaking with Zeteo, Trump is already hammering away in the background, demanding if his lieutenants and assorted hacks are “ready for different election challenges.”

Trump has already admitted his intent on the record, reports Zeteo, telling reporters that “I’m the one that said do it,” when explaining a Justice Department lawsuit seeking to proactively decertify the outcome of the race for one of Alaska’s U.S. Senate seats if a Republican is not the winner.

It does not matter that Justice Department guidelines are clear that the DOJ is not supposed to interfere with how states handle elections, according to the DOJ’s own website. But consistency is not the Trump administration’s strong suit, reports Zeteo.

DOJ spokespeople did not respond to Zeteo’s request for comment, including on details of whether or not the head of the public integrity section officially waived its own guidelines.

“Either way, the intent of the policies is clear,” Zeteo reports.

In a ruling on Thursday, a federal judge in Boston ruled for the District of Columbia and a 25-state coalition in their suit against the Trump administration’s requirement that Medicaid recipients with chronic illnesses prove they cannot work.

At oral arguments the previous week, the states warned that if the court did not put a stop to the rule before January and allow them to make exceptions for those with certain diagnosed conditions, they would have “to bear the costs and burdens of operationalizing this unlawful limitation.”

Richard Stearns, a Clinton appointee, found that the June rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services was “thus contrary to law” because it went beyond what Congress had included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025.

“Enforcement of an unlawful definition of ‘medically frail’ may lead to the disenrollment of otherwise eligible vulnerable individuals relying on Medicaid coverage for continuity of care,” he said, according to Politico. “There is an inherent public interest in ensuring that the government follows the law.”

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, many Medicaid recipients must put in 80 hours a month of work or volunteering, or attend school at least half-time, to hold on to their benefits. This applies to certain low-income adults who get Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act’s expansion, except those who qualify for exemptions, including people considered medically frail.

The ruling also gives the states time to put their verification systems in order, with a six-month period of protection from penalties for implementation errors or delays. The decision only puts the brakes on the “medical frailty” part of the rule; the remainder of the work requirements will go into effect across the country in January.

CMS did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to Reuters.

Stearns was not swayed by the states on other points of the rule. He upheld the government’s position on restricting the use of medical records, such as hospital admission records, older than 12 months to verify a patient’s medical frailty.

The states had argued that such a provision would result in more disenrollments since a medically frail person might not need major health services for over a year.

The judge determined CMS had a rationale for the 12-month “lookback” period and that it was not arbitrary, as the states had argued.

“That the states (or even the court) may disagree with the wisdom of the agency’s policies and conclusions, or may have made different choices, is irrelevant,” he wrote.

He likewise sided with the Trump administration on its policy of allowing states to decide whether to take a patient’s word for being too ill to work instead of requiring medical documentation during the first year of the requirements.

From 2028 onward, Medicaid expansion recipients can self-attest once but must provide further evidence of their condition at the next renewal.

Eight states have already rejected the grace period and will require documentation in 2027, arguing that self-attestation opens the door to fraud. In their case, the states contended that the administration should have required all states to accept it.

A Maryland federal court is still considering a separate challenge to the policy brought by the city of Columbus, Ohio, and several medical groups.

Former South Carolina state Sen. Katrina Shealy, a Republican, spoke to CNN on Thursday just five days before the election and denounced his longtime friend Darline Graham, who is running to fill her late brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-S.C.), seat.

According to Shealy, nothing Graham is saying matches the person she has known Graham to be. Instead, the GOP former official said that she's supporting Democrat Annie Andrews.

Speaking to Boris Sanchez, Shealy said that she and Andrews will likely disagree on something but she is authentic and Shealy believes her. By contrast, Graham is "just following what people in the trump campaign are telling her to do. And I believe that's what she'll continue to do. I think we need somebody to represent our state that's going to do the best thing for our state."

She explained that they need someone willing to stand up for the economy and those being hurt by the decisions in Washington and that isn't Graham.

"You know, grocery prices are higher, gas is higher, you know, and, and it affects those that are the less fortunate," said Shealy. "It's not affecting the legislators here because they have the financial means to take care of that. It affects those who can't take care of — those that are being affected by the department of social services, those that are in the Department of Juvenile Justice, those type people. And I think that's near and dear to Annie Andrew's heart. Not that Darlene doesn't care, but I think Darlene is listening to the wrong side."

Sanchez noted that it sounds like she knows Graham well enough that she can say with knowledge that Graham is not saying what she feels personally.

"It sounds like you think that she's been led astray," said Sanchez.

"I've known Darlene for a while," explained Shealy. You know, she was on the executive director for the Commission for the Blind, and I was the committee that actually appointed her to that position. I knew her before I helped work on Lindsey's campaign. When, you know, he was the senator in South Carolina. So we've known each other through politics and those types of things. I think Darlene is a great woman. She's got a great family. So, I just believe that she's being swayed by the endorsement of Donald Trump. And, you know, sometimes when you're endorsed by somebody, you have to play the game instead of saying what you really feel."

She knows none of what Graham is saying is "in her heart. Maybe she feels as strongly toward Trump as, you know, she wants people to believe."

Sanchez asked if she thought Graham was qualified and if she'd be a good senator, and Shealy said she hopes so and has hope that Graham would lead with her heart and mind and not with orders from someone else.

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An ex-judge has put out a serious warning about the Trump administration’s “creeping” defiance of federal judges. According to the retired jurist, President Donald Trump’s officials are edging perilously close to open insubordination, with court cases they seem set to pursue even after the bench told them to halt.

Jeremy Fogel, a former federal judge and part of the Article III Coalition’s bipartisan membership, voiced his concerns in an interview with Charlie Sykes on the To the Contrary podcast.

When asked whether the administration would flatly refuse a court order, Fogel said that sort of outright defiance has not materialized, as some feared. Yet he sees the administration putting its limits to the test.

“They’re getting closer and closer,” he said. “It is a creeping tendency of sorts.”

One example is the dispute over Trump’s intentions to rework the East Potomac Golf Course in Washington. A judge called for prior notice before any major alterations were made. Government workers felled more than 400 trees all the same, and a court hearing got very heated.

Fogel saw the administration’s handling of it as indicative of the issue at hand. The officials zeroed in on the exact phrasing of the judge’s directive instead of what the court was meant to be averting.

“You know what the court’s intention is and you ignore it and proceed. It is not outright defiance, but it is clear enough,” he said.

The administration has put in an appeal of the most recent ruling, contending the tree removal had nothing to do with the president’s redevelopment scheme.

Then there is Minnesota, where federal judges have voiced frustration with Justice Department types not seeing to immigration orders in a timely fashion. The department has since lodged a misconduct complaint with the judges who made the matter public.

Such run-ins are wearing down a relationship built on trust, in Fogel’s view. In his 20 years on the federal bench, he remembers government attorneys as professionals who did their duty come what may from the White House. These days he speaks of an “incredible erosion in trust.”

At a get-together in September of some 120 or 130 federal judges, Fogel asked them how many had been threatened in a manner that they took seriously, and over half put up a hand. He quickly said the exercise was hardly a scientific survey, but the strain on the judges and their families is no less.

What keeps Fogel up is the prospect of an administration coming to regard court orders as optional.

“The courts can’t enforce their own orders without the other branches’ assistance,” he said.

And as for restoring trust, he cautioned that a new administration will not be enough.

A new analysis suggests that President Donald Trump's increasingly bizarre public appearances may have reached a political turning point, as even some of his longtime allies are becoming tired of his erratic behavior.

Columnist Margaret Sullivan wrote in The Guardian on Thursday that Trump's rambling rallies, personal comments and obsession with his own popularity are now working against Republicans rather than in their favor.

The president has on several occasions encouraged his supporters to view next week's midterm elections as a vote about him, even though he will not be on the ballot.

Last month, Trump told voters to pretend he was on the ballot, a plea he has continued making while campaigning for Republican candidates.

Sullivan doubted whether the strategy would work, since Trump was already struggling with his public approval ratings and voters remained frustrated about the cost of living.

She drew attention to a growing pattern of odd behavior in his public appearances, including sudden shifts from one subject to another, insults aimed at his political opponents and the familiar dance routines that conclude his rallies.

She also cited an analysis from The Independent that described his performances as becoming "increasingly detached from reality," and that he “vacillates between topics to the point where his remarks border on the nonsensical and he ends every appearance by awkwardly dancing to the Village People’s well-known gay anthem YMCA”.

At the Kansas event, Trump referred to Democrats as "Dumocrats," which she describes as the “level of presidential discourse” that Americans have become used to.

On other occasions, Trump has made detailed remarks concerning the physical appearance of male politicians. During an appearance in Kentucky, he described examining Republican Sen. Jon Husted's body, discussing his shoulders and jawline before commenting on his muscular build.

The comments have highlighted an increasingly unpredictable campaign style, which Sullivan suggested might be alienating people beyond Trump's most committed supporters.

Sullivan also cited Jason Riley, a conservative columnist for The Wall Street Journal, who observed that even some devoted MAGA supporters and congressional Republicans have grown tired of Trump's behavior.

That criticism is significant because it does not come only from Democrats or longtime Trump opponents, but also from voices on the right.

The Guardian columnist argued that the president's problems extend beyond his rally performances.

She pointed to his social media outbursts, treatment of longtime allies, allegations of self-dealing and misleading economic claims as additional reasons voters might decide not to support him.

At the same time, Trump has continued presenting himself as the central figure in elections across the country, telling supporters to imagine that a vote for a Republican candidate is a vote for him.

Sullivan suggested that the message might inspire his most loyal supporters, but it could also remind other voters of the behavior that has caused them to oppose the president.

This week, President Donald Trump and his Justice Department made its third attempt to go after former FBI Director James Comey, but a former FBI general counsel wants people to know that the recent move isn't an indictment and it certainly isn't going to move forward.

Sarah Longwell, publisher at The Bulwark, spoke to Andrew Weissmann, a frequent foe of Trump's about the new case, mistakenly calling it an "indictment." Weissmann quickly corrected her, saying only a grand jury can indict someone on felony charges.

The last time Comey was part of the narrative was "Seashell-Gate," where he posted a photo of seashells spelling out "86-46," meaning remove the 46th president from office.

"The really strong, important case where — because he posted the picture of the seashells and the government apparently thought that was a threat on the president, they waited a year — a year — to bring the case because the, you know, threats on the president are things that you want to wait on."

"The sea shell threat was imminent," Longwell joked.

The new case alleges that Comey illegally shared classified information or "crimes involving receipt, possession, transmission, etc., of National Defense Information." Ironically, it was the same thing Trump was tried for after stealing the classified documents from the White House in 2021.

"He has not been indicted," said Weissmann. "And the reason that's important is this is beyond a rookie mistake. It is Looney Tunes. Um, so stick with me. This is, I'm going to do some law, but it is really simple law. The Constitution of the United States, the Fifth Amendment says that if you are going to be charged with a federal crime, a felony, it has to be the grand jury that does it. Meaning that a prosecutor can't just say, 'You're charged with a federal crime.'"

He compared it to Cassidy Hutchinson, whom the DOJ said it would go after for "lying to Congress," but when the Justice Department presented the evidence to the grand jury, they didn't buy it. So, the DOJ can't charge Hutchinson.

The same is true in the Comey case, where they also didn't go to the grand jury to get an indictment. They just issued "information," not "indictment."

Ironically, he said, filing "information" gives the potential defendant an opportunity to say, "you don't have to go to the grand jury; just indict me now."

Weissmann said that folks might ask why anyone would ever do something like that. He described it as matching situations where someone may want to cooperate with a larger investigation and cut a deal.

"It exists in the law that you can bring something by an information, but it is only there — it only has any legal significance if the defendant has agreed to it. James Comey, we have seen in the filings, has said he did not agree to it. So, when the government says we are filing an information and it is before a federal judge, Trevor McFaden, in D.C., that is not anything. It is a nullity. It is an abortion. It is an absolute non-existent thing in the law. So, James Comey has not been charged. We know the government wants to charge him with that, but they haven't actually gone to court and obtained that."

Quietly, Weissmann said, Comey has been saying, "I'm not sure they think that the government knows they need to get an indictment." The statute of limitations is up, unless the DOJ can use some maneuver to extend it a few days, but even then it has been over 10 years.

The 10-year time limit he's speaking about in this case is about the statute of limitations. The DOJ could try to charge someone for a lower-level version of the crime after five years, and the more serious version of the charge has a 10-year statute of limitations. The DOJ sought to go after the most severe case at the 10-year mark because the 5-year option was during the previous administration.

The reason for it, Weissmann said, is twofold: One, he said that it sends a message to all federal law enforcement that anyone who did anything to Trump ever will be punished to the full extent that he can. That can mean charges that would never pass muster, but could cost lawyers fees and other resources.

The second is more complicated. Weissmann said that he thinks Trump is looking to the "kernel" of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. A key piece of that was Gen. Michael Flynn, who was discovered, fired and charged by former President Barack Obama. So, Trump could see that as the start of the Mueller investigation before there was a Mueller. It's a main reason that Trump believes all of the conspiracies against him began during the Obama administration.

"You can see that he's thinking, oh, this is part of sort of the kernel of the problem I had. If I didn't have somebody who was willing to stand up and tell the truth..." Weissmann said.