Adam Lynch, Alternet

Bloomberg opinion columnist Ronald Brownstein argued recent elections show Republicans’ treacherous path to winning in 2026 is more narrow and dangerous than ever.

“For Republicans, November was bookended by two ominous developments: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's resignation and the party's resounding defeats in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races,” said Brownstein.

“The Republican candidates in those races — Jack Ciattarelli in New Jersey and Winsome Earle-Sears in Virginia — tried one strategy for dealing with President Donald Trump: appeasing him at all costs. Greene tried the other: showing some independence from the president. That both roads ended in disaster underscores how narrow a path is available next year to Republicans in competitive states and congressional districts.”

Ciattarelli and Earle-Sears followed the course almost all elected Republicans have adopted in Trump’s shadow after he remade the party in his image. Throughout 2024, both resolutely refused to criticize him, even when Trump took actions that demonstrably hurt their states. This included refusing to criticize Trump laying off thousands of Virginians who work for the federal government, despite the massive layoffs raising the state’s unemploymenr rate.

“Ciattarelli and Earle-Sears fatally refused to change course even as polls for months made clear that Trump's tumultuous second term was bleeding his support. In the end, Ciattarelli and Earle-Sears were both flattened by a tidal wave of discontent over Trump,” said Brownstein.

It did not seem to register with either of the GOP candidates that a solid majority of voters in both New Jersey and Virginia disapproved of Trump, and that more than 90 percent of those disapproving backed the Democratic candidates, according to polls.

“The landslide Democratic wins in both states sent a clear message to any GOP candidates facing competitive races: aligning too closely with Trump in this environment can be dangerous to your political future,” said Brownstein. “But just weeks later, Greene's resignation, under pressure from the president, offered a cautionary addendum: distancing too much from Trump also can be dangerous to your political future.”

Brownstein notes that the Greene flew back to Washington to vote against Trump's second impeachment over his Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — the same night her father had brain surgery for tumors. And yet, Trump labeled her a “traitor" as soon as she parted ways with him on the release of the Justice Department's files on convicted sex-trafficker and Trump friend Jeffrey Epstein.

Green’s district was reliably red, but Brownstein said the choices “are even more excruciating for Republicans running in less reliably red areas.”

“Among Republican strategists it's become conventional wisdom that their candidates can't win without Trump's favor because that's the key to turning out his base of irregular working-class voters. But even if turning out Trump's base is necessary for Republicans in 2026, there's virtually no chance it will be sufficient in competitive races,” Brownstein said.

Trump has occasionally toned down his criticism of Republicans in difficult swing districts, like Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). But with Trump's popularity bombing now in so many districts cross the nation, it would be best for him to go hands-off on many more GOP lawmakers. But that’s not likely, said Brownstein.

“The level of self-awareness and self-discipline such a strategy would require … has not exactly been a hallmark of Trump's volatile political career,” Brownstein said.

MS Now Opinion Columnist Ja’han Jones said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is lobbing more firebombs into an already burning MAGA house this week.

“Conspiracy theories are devouring any semblance of unity among the MAGA movement these days,” writes Jones, revealing never-before seen rifts tearing the formerly Trump-centric community to pieces.

“Massie made eye-popping, unsubstantiated allegations of political targeting involving FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who are well-known for spreading conspiracy theories themselves,” said Jones, which runs counter to President Donald Trump’s “absurd” post that the Republican Party “has never been so UNITED.”

“A quick look online shows that couldn’t be further from the truth,” said Jones. “Whether it’s theories surrounding the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk or bigoted allegations against Jewish people, the conservative movement can’t seem to get on the same page. And the divisions appear to be increasingly acrimonious.”

Massie has already garnered positive press for his battle to force the release of the Epstein files, in spite of Trump’s open opposition. But more recently, Jones said he “sat for a chummy interview with admitted Jan. 6 rioter Steve Baker,” who works for right-wing outlet The Blaze. The conversation discussed claims surrounding a pipe bombing suspect who allegedly sought to wreak havoc in Washington on Jan. 6.

“The congressman has been among several conservatives to fuel conspiracy theories about the incident – claims that have been disputed by the FBI and which have prompted an online war of words between Bongino and Massie,” said Jones.

During the interview, Massie alleged, without evidence, that a member of Patel’s staff threatened Massie’s staff with a criminal fraud investigation “if we didn’t straighten up and play ball,” suggesting political targeting by the nation’s top law enforcement agency. He went on to opine the alleged conduct from Patel’s staffer was probably illegal, though Jones said “some obvious caveats apply.”

“Massie’s claim shouldn’t be taken as gospel, even though we have ample evidence that the Justice Department has pursued politicized investigations against other critics of Trump and his administration,” said Jones, adding that The FBI declined to comment to MS NOW inquiries.

Jones said Massie’s accusation is already being “parroted by numerous pro-MAGA accounts on social media.” And while the spread of Massie’s allegations certainly don’t count as “irrefutable evidence of FBI wrongdoing,” Jones said it is “absolutely indicative of the unfolding infighting within the conspiracy-obsessed MAGA movement.”

Predatory, short-term insurance plans are waiting in the wings to scoop up desperate Americans losing their insurance this year, but consultants say most people should steer clear of them.

Thanks to efforts by President Donald Trump and the Republican party, Obamacare health subsidies are set to expire this year, leaving millions of people with soaring insurance costs. The Trump administration is suggesting newly abandoned Americans enroll in “short-term” plans as an alternative to plans sold under Obamacare, but unlike most insurance, these plans are not required to cover preexisting conditions or even basic needs such as maternity care and mental health.

“Their coverage is so full of holes that five states have banned their sale, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group. Even some major insurers have questioned whether relying on the short-term plans is a good idea, warning that many consumers could mistake them for comprehensive coverage,” the Post reports.

Nearly half of the plans do not cover outpatient prescription drugs and 40 percent do not cover mental health services, according to KFF, unlike Obamacare-compliant plans. The Washington Post reports there is a reason the Biden administration referred to them as “junk” plans.

Arkansas industrial electronics salesman Robert Hays thought he’d purchased conventional medical insurance, as did retired Wyoming cafeteria worker Essie Nath and Key West chef Martin Liz. The Post reports Hays is now “facing bills of $116,000 for neck surgery required after tweaking his neck while lifting weights.” Nath, meanwhile, suffered heart failure and got bills amounting to $82,000. Liz is dealing with knee replacement bills of more than $100,000.

“These policies are a horrible idea,” said Ken Swindle, an Arkansas-based attorney for Hays. “People think they’re getting comprehensive medical coverage, but they’re not, and they often don’t realize that until it’s too late.”

Chicago-area national health insurance agent Andy Mided told the Post that he has been flooded with calls from Obamacare enrollees who are looking for a cheaper alternative.

“There’s been a huge influx of people asking me, ‘What do I do?’” he said. But now Republicans are using Obamacare subsidy money to pay for the tax cuts in Trump’s 2025 budget bill, so options are limited for many Americans.

Mided said the short-term plans are too risky for his clients. Given their gaps in coverage, he said, “I couldn’t sleep at night if I sold that to somebody.”

But insurance companies that sell the spotty plans are celebrating and preparing for new customers, according to the Post. Last month, UnitedHealth and its subsidiary, Golden Rule Insurance, announced new sales incentives to agents selling the short-term plans.

“This fall, we are celebrating ... with a high-impact incentive designed to reward your hustle,” the announcement said.

Read the Washington Post report at this link.

The Washington Post reports Trump-style divisiveness is infiltrating the nation in its smallest communities.

Palmyra police chief Paul Blount reports a “growing sense of unease” in his tiny town of 1,719 tucked between Milwaukee and Madison.

“Given the climate and recent media headlines, we are taking the following precautionary measures for this weekend’s event,” Blount had warned members of the Palmyra board in the days before homecoming weekend. He’d even taken to using neighboring county drones to scan the rooftops for threats. “My team and I are proactively preparing for the worst-case scenarios while continuing to hope for the best.”

The Post reports Palmyra has two bars, one grocery store and two gas stations, but its police chief was catching reaction from his application to use town resources to train new ICE agents.

"ICE had approved his application, and then came a statement from the ACLU, the TV news crews and emails to Paul saying he’d ‘sold his soul for money,’ and now, so much of what he saw unfolding across the country felt like it was creeping into life in the village he was supposed to keep safe,” the Post reports.

When Paul had written his warning to the village board about the national “climate,” a gunman had just driven a pickup truck into a Mormon church in Michigan, and, a man had opened fire on an ICE facility in Dallas. MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk had been shot and killed on a college campus and now Paul was watching footage of masked federal agents shooting protestors with rubber bullets and firing tear gas just two hours away in Chicago.

Suddenly, there was a rally brewing in Palmyra — something Blount hadn’t seen in his eight years as a police officer. And then came the email. The village clerk sent his phone a screenshot from “a concerned citizen.” Paul studied it, then bumped into assistant fire chief, Dan Schiller. He gestured Dan inside his office, closed the door behind him, and sat at his desk.

“Well, I got my first death threat,” Blount told him.

“The board is crooked,” the writer said of the seven-member board. “They don’t listen to what we tell them” … “Only way to … to put gun on head and do it!!!!’”

“I would have thought that would be somebody out of the area,” Blount said.

At least one member of the town board had already told Blount that the attention from the ICE agreement was making them nervous enough to pull their vote. Blount notified each member of the board about the threat and passed the info along to state officials.

“We already know who it is,” Blount said. “It’s a local. He does have guns, unfortunately.”

Eventually, as news of opposition grew and public sentiment soured the small-town board abandoned the idea of conducting ICE training, despite needing the federal revenue it would bring.

“We deeply value the feedback we have received from our community,” a statement from the board and the police department would read. “… We believe that at this time, the best course forward for Palmyra is to take no further action on the proposed agreement.”

Today, the Post reports Blount is back on his job. But he is catching police codes on his scanner that used to only make an appearance in bigger cities.

Read the Washington Post report at this link.

Ten days since the 2025 elections and President Donald Trump and his allies are reeling, reports Newsweek columnist Jesus Mesa.

“… [a] series of political blows [have] left his allies rattled, his base divided, and his once-durable administration suddenly strained,” said Mesa, explaining that the pain began with different Republican factions clawing one another after a bad off-year election.

“We got our a—— handed to us,” said Trump ally and failed Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy of the 2025 elections.

Trump “moved quickly to deflect blame,” said Mesa, declaring on his Truth Social site that “TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT,” and he insisted on a Fox News interview the next morning that, “It’s no good if we do a great job and [Republicans] don’t talk about it.”

But exit polls say voters were responding to broader concerns about the state of the country and especially the economy—which they firmly identify as Trump’s economy, Mesa said. Combined with the president’s faltering support among Latinos, voters routed Republicans by unexpected percentages that look bad for the upcoming mid-terms elections if the national mood doesn’t improve.

Then, right after the elections, Mesa said Trump enflamed his MAGA base with an interview with Laura Ingraham, where he was pressed on whether the U.S. should continue issuing H-1B visas for foreign tech workers.

Trump defended the program. “You do need to bring in talent,” he said, adding that the U.S. lacks certain skills for high-tech industries.

When Ingraham pushed back, saying, “We have plenty of talented people here,” Trump responded flatly: “No, you don’t.”

The “America First” MAGA influence-sphere exploded, accusing Trump of betrayal.

“On-again, off-again allies like Ann Coulter and other far-right figures lashed out, calling the comment a slap in the face to American workers,” reported Mesa. “By the next day, aides insisted Trump was talking about the failures of the U.S. education system, not American talent itself.”

And that was not the end, Mesa added. Just as Trump was declaring victory over the government a government shutdown, new revelations pulled convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein back into the spotlight.

“On November 12 … the House Oversight Committee released more than 20,000 pages of files related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019. Among them was an email from Epstein to author Michael Wolff claiming that Trump ‘knew about the girls.’ Other messages suggested Trump had hosted or spent time with women connected to Epstein at his private properties,” Mesa reported.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the release a “Democratic hoax,” but Trump allies Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Nancy Mace, and Thomas Massie signed a bipartisan petition calling for a full vote to release all Epstein documents.

Trump did his perception of innocence no favors by personally calling Boebert “to try to get her to change her stance,” said Mesa, and he further aggravated the issue by announcing he had asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Epstein’s ties to former President Bill Clinton and other prominent Democrats, which Mesa argues will keep “the simmering scandal in the news for another day.”

And it’s not over.

“Next week, the House is scheduled to hold a floor vote requiring the Justice Department to release the full Epstein dossier, including thousands of unclassified documents, memos, and internal communications,” Mesa reported. “The vote was forced after Massie’s discharge petition secured the 218 signatures needed to bypass Speaker Mike Johnson.”

“We might as well just do it,” Johnson told reporters.

NBC News reports the FBI threw cold water on a popular right-wing conspiracy that a former Capitol Police officer was a potential match for the suspect who planted pipe bombs at the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee before the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“In a letter to a Republican congressman who leads a new committee investigating Jan. 6, the FBI explained that it had been tracking a separate person of interest who took photos near the RNC on Jan. 5 and then took the Metro back to his friend's home, where he was staying to attend a Jan. 6 rally,” NBC reports. “The FBI said it had focused on the home because the person taking the photos used the homeowner's SmartTrip card on the Metro.”

That congressman, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), posted a section of the letter on X.

The homeowner happened to be a neighbor of a former Capitol Police officer named as a potential suspect on the conservative news site, The Blaze. The Blaze went so far as to post a "gait analysis" claiming to have found a 94 percent match between the officer and the pipe bomb suspect.

Loyalists of President Donald Trump seized upon the "bombshell" report, including Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), who wrote on X that “a Capitol Police officer placed a pipe bomb at the RNC on J6.” Luna added that the Blaze story was proof that Republicans would “all be in the gulag” if it wasn't forTrump.

NBC reports that even Loudermilk promoted the premature Blaze article, and he now heads a new select subcommittee that aims to neutralize the findings of the Jan. 6 committee that operated during the Biden administration.

But now FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino is having to personally put out The Blaze’s viral fire, posting Thursday that reporting about “prior persons of interest is grossly inaccurate and serves only to mislead the public.”

In the same post, Bongino admitted that he “has yet to produce a break through” despite “a week of near 24-hour work on RECENT open source leads.”

Meanwhile, an attorney representing the so-called "Blaze bomber" Shauni Kerkhoff is already telling the Washington Post that his client is prepared to push back against "shameful allegations [that] are recklessly false, absurd, and defamatory.

"The former Capitol Police officer identified in conservative media as a potential Jan. 6th pipe bomb suspect has lawyered up," posted Bulwark reporter Will Sommer on X.

Read the NBC News report at this link.

Retired Maj. Gen. James “Spider" Marks said he is highly concerned about the absence of military lawyers who were scheduled to attend a briefing with lawmakers about continuing U.S. strikes on Venezuelan boats.

“Every operation that I was ever a part of, [attorneys were] the most important person in the room after you laid … your course of action,” Marks told CNN anchors Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown. “You laid all this stuff out, then you turn to your JAG (Judge Advocate General), you turn to either your civilian general counsel or your military JAG officer, and you'd say, ‘okay, you've been a part of this planning. You get the last vote right now. Are we doing what we can to meet all legal obligations that we have?’”

“And that's when the lawyers will say, as they probably did during the planning process, ‘look, we can get you to the solution you're looking for, but maybe this path that you guys want, we may have to tweak a little bit because I can't defend that,” said Marks. “I can't give you justification.’ The perspective is always, ‘how do I get to Yes.’ And in this case, not having the lawyers there, that gives me big-time concern.”

For over three months, the U.S. military has repeatedly struck boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, claiming the vessels were carrying drugs into the United States. The strikes have occurred nearly every week since the first attack announced on Sept. 2, killing dozens of people. However, the United Kingdom is no longer sharing intelligence with the U.S. about alleged drug trafficking vessels because it does not want to be complicit in “illegal” attacks.

Another issue Marks had with White House maneuvering into a wider, full-scale attack on Venezuela were the lack of clarity in its motivations, particularly it’s goal to “prevent drugs coming into the United States and to eliminate narco-trafficking in the hemisphere.”

“My only question about those is how do you measure when you're done and you think you've reached a point where everything's good?” Marks told Blitzer and Brown. “… More specifically, when you want to go back to what we did in Afghanistan, how do you know when you say, ‘okay, I think we're good to go here, we can start winding down’ or at least conduct some form of a transition?”

Columnist Ed Kilgore writes in New York Magazine's Intelligencer that there’s a lot of “ill-suppressed glee among Republicans” right now over ending the government shutdown without agreeing to preserve healthcare subsidies making insurance affordable for millions of Americans.

“So were Republicans the ‘winners’ and Democrats the ‘losers’ in the shutdown saga? Maybe now, but maybe not later,” said Kilgore, explaining that the short-term stakes of the shutdown fight may “soon be overshadowed” by more enduring public perceptions of what the two parties displayed.

“Trump’s clumsy and insensitive handling of the SNAP benefit cutoff was an unforced error and a gift to Democrats,” said Kilgore. “But just as importantly, by ‘losing’ the Obamacare subsidy–extension fight, Democrats may have dodged a bullet. A deal on that issue would have cushioned or even eliminated an Obamacare premium price hike that will now be a real problem for Trump and the GOP.”

Republicans, said Kilgore, have no healthcare plan other than “the same tired panaceas involving individual savings plans that allow health insurers to discriminate against poorer and sicker Americans.” These were precisely the kind of problem that first led to the passage of the Affordable Care Act almost two decades ago, and they are the reason the plan remains popular with American voters.

“As it happens, the big takeaway from Democrats’ election sweep this month is that ‘affordability’ is a message that accommodates candidates ranging from democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani to centrist Abigail Spanberger,” said Kilgore, which played on “tangible public unhappiness with Trump’s broken promises to reduce the cost of living.”

“That Republicans emerged from the government shutdown having abundantly displayed their lack of interest in soaring health-care costs and persistently high grocery costs positions Democrats exactly where they hope to be next November,” Kilgore continued. He observed that it even managed to trounce the party’s ideological and generational disagreement over strategy and tactics.

“The Democratic ‘struggle for the soul of the party’ that Republicans and Beltway pundits love more than life itself may manifest itself more visibly during 2026 primaries. But when general-election season arrives, there’s every reason to believe Democrats will stop fighting each other and focus on flipping the House — and in a big-wave election, maybe even the Senate — and destroying the governing trifecta that has enabled so many Trump outrages this year,” said Kilgore.

Another shutdown in January could cause some complications, but between now and the next elections, the shutdown has given voters an excellent introduction into Republican indifference at the plight of regular Americans, according to Kilgore. And exploding health insurance costs in the aftermath of the GOP and Trump killing subsidies, coupled with the drip-drip of creeping inflation could significantly shape the next fight at the ballot box.

“‘[W]inning’ the current shutdown won’t in itself improve Trump’s lagging job-approval ratings, or the incoherence of his economic policies, or the fears his authoritarian conduct instills,” said Kilgore. “That’s the GOP’s problem and Democrats’ opportunity.”

Read Kilgore's Intelligencer column at this link.

Axios reports President Donald Trump's second term is creating few new laws that will outlive his presidency.

“[N]o president since at least Dwight Eisenhower in 1953 has signed fewer bills into law in a similar governing period, GovTrack Insider found, despite Trump's party controlling both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue,” reports Axios.

It’s a “Santa and Grinch presidency,” in which almost every day reveals a new promise to give something of financial value to a nation, group or individual — or take it away. But rarely do these transactions cement new laws.

“This reality reflects Trump's improvisational and dealmaking impulses. But it also means that a lot of what he does will be easily reversible,” reports Axios, which included a list of fleeting policy moves that will evaporate with his term.

After Democrats trampled Republicans in last Tuesday’s off-year elections, Trump called for tariff rebate checks and 50-year mortgages, neither of which were sealed into law.

Trump prizes his real estate savvy, but openly supported the idea of a 50-year mortgage — complete with the jaw-dropping interest rate payments that will accrue over the half-century life of the loans. Bill Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency director known for digging up dirt to fuel Trump’s indictments of people on his enemies list, called the loans “a complete game changer." But critics in the real estate industry and members of Trump’s own party, are slamming the proposal.

Trump’s tariff rebate checks are just as insubstantial because the Supreme Court might nullify the tariffs, in part because he didn't get them signed into law. And even if the courts do permit the White House to usurp the power of Congress to collect and redistribute taxes, nothing stops the next president from simply ending the rebate checks and the tariffs that fund them through a simple policy change.

“Anything not codified by law can be easily undone by the courts — or by Democrats when they win back the White House,” reports Axios.

Even Trump, himself, can end the policies “if the winds shift the right way,” said Axios, pointing out that Trump later decided to give auto companies a partial refund for the tariffs that he personally imposed on the industry.

Trump’s push for lower prescription prices for GLP-1 weight loss drugs is just as short-lived because he again failed to work with both Republicans and Democrats to pass a law and instead pressured pharmaceutical companies.

“Almost all of Trump's astonishing expansions of precedent-stretching presidential power flow not from law, or even congressional approval. It's just Trump doing what he wants ... to whoever he wants ... when he wants,” reports Axios.

Read the Axios report at this link.

Politico reports White House officials are furious with Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte for talking President Donald Trump into suggesting a 50-year mortgage plan, according to a report.

“The White House was blindsided by the idea, according to two people familiar with the situation granted anonymity to discuss internal thinking, and is now dealing with a furious backlash from conservative allies, business leaders and lawmakers,” Politico reported.

On Saturday evening, Politico reported, Pulte arrived at Trump’s Palm Beach Golf Club with a poster containing a graphic of former President Franklin Roosevelt appearing below “30-year mortgage” and one of Trump below “50-year mortgage.” The headline was “Great American Presidents.”

It was only about 10 minutes later that Trump was posting an image favoring 50-year mortgages to Truth Social, according to one of the anonymous sources.

“Almost immediately, aides were fielding angry phone calls from opposition complaining the proposition was bad politics and bad policy that could raise housing costs in the long run with intolerable interest costs," Politico reported.

“He just sold POTUS a bill of goods that wasn’t necessarily accurate,” the anonymous source told Politico. “He said ‘FDR did it, you can do it, it’s gonna be a big thing.’ But he didn’t tell him about all the unintended consequences.”

Another anonymous source made clear that Trump is a president who can be easily led by bad suggestions.

“Anything that goes before POTUS needs to be vetted,” said the person present for Pulte’s poster presentation. “And a lot of times with Pulte they’re not. He just goes straight up to POTUS.”

Gennadiy Goldberg, head of US rates strategy at TD Securities, described Pulte’s proposal as leading “to buyers building equity in their homes more slowly.”

“At the beginning of the mortgage, more of those payments tend to be interest,” said Goldberg. “This is more of a stopgap band-aid to address affordability.”

MAGA influencers and conservatives razed the proposal on social media, said Politico, with a list including Laura Loomer, Mike Cernovich, Christopher Rufo, Sean Davis of the Federalist, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

“The thing that became clear from this latest episode — if it wasn’t already clear — is that Bill Pulte doesn’t know the first f—— thing about how the mortgage markets operate,” one of the anonymous sources told Politico. “After publicly humiliating the president with his moronic 50 year mortgage plan it’s safe to assume that his days are numbered.”

However, Trump was defending the plan seemingly with complete confidence on Fox News on Monday.

“It’s not even a big deal,” said Trump, who sold himself on his real estate prowess before becoming president. “All it means is you pay less per month. You pay it over a longer period of time. It’s not like a big factor.”

CNN’s “Table for Five” crew erupted in surprise after Brooklyn attorney Arthur Aidala let slip a potentially racist quip.

The Saturday Morning “Table for Five” panel was discussing the anti-Muslim movement that opponents of mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani faced in the run up to his successful election last on Tuesday.

“I think a lot of the antagonism against Mamdani is really not about policies or past statements. It's the idea of a scary Muslim person suddenly leading New York City,” said former White House senior advisor Nayyera Haq. “Luckily, I mean, I was on the capitol property at my first job on 9/11. I think in 20 years we've evolved and moved past these scary images of halal meat coming for you.”

“But this is a personal point for me,” Haq continued. “Someone like Mamdani being able to be his full, truthful self, be authentic about what it means to be a New Yorker right now, who is struggling. That works. I wish it was integrity… but we've seen a two-time, impeached president with multiple corruption scandals get reelected. I think it's the authenticity.”

“That's what Trump has,” argued “Cari Champion Show” host Cari Champion. “So why can Trump be as authentic and divisive as he is while what Mamdani does is completely inappropriate?”

“He's already said we're not going to invest in any of our funds — thank God the [New York] comptroller who controls the funds is Jewish,” blurted the “Arthur Aidala Power Hour” host, causing confused looks and sidelong stares around the table.

“What does the comptroller being Jewish have to do with it,” asked Haq.

“He's already said we're not going to invest any more funds with anyone who works with Israel,” said Aidala, who Trump was temporarily considering for the position of U.S. Attorney of Brooklyn. “He decides where the pension funds go, and if you invest in Israel, then, then, according to Mamdani, he doesn't want [that].”

Republican strategist Mat Wylie told the State that Democrats managed to successfully hang the pain of the ongoing shutdown around Republicans’ necks — however hard GOP lawmakers tried to blame Democrats.

“Democrats successfully leveraged the shutdown into a political win. Make no mistake: this shutdown is on them. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer gambled that the pain it would cause — missed paychecks, massive travel delays, and disruptions to WIC, SNAP and Head Start — would translate into political victories. They were right,” said Wylie.

But Republicans have a bad history with American healthcare, and U.S. voters already had a familiar enemy in their sights when the pain started kicking in.

“Health care has always been the GOP’s Achilles’ heel, so it’s no surprise Democrats chose to die on that hill. What they didn’t anticipate was how long the shutdown would last — or how politically valuable it would become,” Wylie said. “Once it became clear that SNAP benefits for 42 million Americans would expire just as Obamacare premiums spiked, Democrats had no reason to reopen the government.”

Simply put, said Wylie, the GOP got outplayed, and now Republicans are “stuck in a dangerous game of chicken.”

“If this drags through Thanksgiving and Christmas, the political ads will write themselves — empty dinner tables, missed paychecks and a GOP Congress that has been MIA. Bottom line: If Republicans don’t fix this fast, 2026 won’t just be a loss — it’ll be an extinction event.”

Exit polls keep showing economy and affordability is at the top of voters’ lists as people worry about “keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table.”

“They’re watching prices climb and job security crumble. And they had reason to worry. October alone showed 153,074 job cuts — the worst October since 2003. Bottom line: Voters sent a message that should chill every Republican in America: the politics of outrage and grievance don’t win when families can’t pay their bills,” said Wylie.

Worse, Trump is downright toxic in blue and purple states, and “Make America Great Again,” seems “intent on making Republicans unelectable in swing states.”

“Americans are fed up with chaos. They don’t want militarized cities, trade wars that crush farmers and drive-up prices, executive overreach masquerading as strength or citizens targeted for dissent. They don’t just blame Trump, they blame Republicans,” Wylie warned, while reminding readers that polls showed 38 percent of Virginia voters and 41 percent of New Jersey voters turned out “specifically to oppose Trump.”

“If that level of backlash holds in swing districts across the country, Republicans won’t just lose the midterms — they’ll be wiped out,” said Wylie. “No amount of gerrymandering can protect against that.”

Read the State report at this link.

“Unherd” writer Richard Hanania on Friday noticed a strong correlation between President Donald Trump’s recent collapse in popularity and another pertinent event in Washington, D.C.

“Trump approval finally beginning to really decline,” said Hanania on X. “Turning point was around October 27. What has been the cause?” he posted.

For X users, the connection was obvious.

“It’s actually so funny, and so grim, that it seems like the East Wing/ballroom stuff really did it lmao,” posted X user Cassie Pritchard, a union member with Starbucks Workers United since 2022.

“Demolition of the East Wing started on October 22nd. Would take a few days for that to show up in polls,” said another X user.

Former Bloomberg, Daily News and New York Post writer Robert A. George also suggested the “combination of shutdown continuing, focus on missed paychecks and SNAP benefits — plus coverage of White House ballroom/East Wing demolition.”

Critics howled as excavators and demolition teams began ripping down the East Wing in mid-October, with graphic images splashing across social media and providing a visual of perceived damage that Trump’s critics say the president was similarly doing to the nation. In her October 25 opinion column, New York Times' Maureen Dowd pointed to the demolition of the East Wing as symbolic of Trump’s broader problem.

“Trump has so little respect for this 123-year-old symbol of American history that he didn't check with federal planning officials or Congress before he obliterated one side of the White House," Dowd argued. “… Build a $300 million, 90,000-square-foot gilt ballroom — which will overshadow the central edifice — while the government is shut and people have been thrown out of work.”

“You don’t have to be a wild-eyed leftist to think all of this has a pre-French Revolution vibe,” said conservative writer William Kristol, speaking on lingering economic dissatisfaction.

“The Old Regime in France led to the Revolution of 1789. And that revolution in turn quickly produced the Reign of Terror. It was one of the architects of the Terror, Pierre Gaspard Chaumette … who … famously cited the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau: ‘When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich.’”

Politico reporter Josh Gerstein writes that former Pam Bondi Chief of Staff and Stephen Miller ally Chad Mizelle wants Congress to declare war on judges who make decisions against President Donald Trump’s policies.

Mizelle, who announced his departure as Department of Justice chief of staff in September, urged congressional Republicans to step up campaigns to impeach federal judges who've blocked Trump policies.

“What’s going to force the Supreme Court to do something is fundamentally political pressure. It’s going to be when Congress starts impeaching judges and saying … ‘You are now encroaching into our territory,’” Mizelle said during a panel discussion at the Federalist Society’s annual lawyers’ meeting in Washington.

“This is a problem of leftist politics,” said Mizelle, arguing that earlier Republican administrations did not face as many decisions blocking their policies. George Bush, he said, had six injunctions against him, while Obama had 12. Trump endured 64 injunctions in his first administration compared to Biden’s 14 — and with 40 issued in the first six months of Trump’s second administration.

“Since 1963 over three quarters of injunctions were issued against Trump,” argued Mizelle, arguing that the Supreme Court has given Trump a “92 percent win rate” for petitions it filed with the Supreme Court, compared to Biden’s win rate of only 50 percent.

But Gerstein reports Mizelle “turned heads” at the conference by calling for Congress to step up efforts to impeach judges who have blocked Trump policies, and his “impeachment battle cry” followed a “cryptic story” he shared that appeared to involve an implicit threat his father once issued to put down a stray cat in the family’s yard.

“What do I think [Trump] should do? He should stand up, and he’s already done this, and say, ‘Judges, I know how to deal with stray cats,’” said Mizelle, who described his father's threat to put down the cat as indicative of having a "father from Mississippi."