May 7, 2026 at 4:02 PM EDT
'No integrity': Former agent says FBI morale at an all-time low

President Donald Trump's FBI director, Kash Patel, is reported to have caused morale at America's top federal law enforcement agency to fall to an all-time low. "Most FBI agents feel -- I do not know a single agent who, like me, left, nor do I have any friends whatsoever still in the Bureau who have a single positive thing to say about his stewardship," Michael Feinberg, a former FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge, said to MS NOW's Katy Tur on Thursday. "Nobody agrees with every director's every decision. I was there for [Robert] Mueller, for [James] Comey, for [Christopher] Wray, and for a brief time for Patel. And the difference is, with the first three, you might have disagreed with their decision or their policies, but you had respect for their intellectual credentials. You had respect for their professional achievements. You had respect for their temperament and their character, their integrity. Patel brings no intellectual credentials to the job. He has no relevant experience whatsoever that would have enabled him to do this well. And as near as we can tell, he has no integrity. So it's unclear what anybody would look up to."

May 7, 2026 at 12:10 PM EDT
Pathologist explains the clear dementia signal in new viral Trump clip

A new clip this week of President Donald Trump seemingly unable to walk a straight line reignited concerns about his health, and now, a speech pathologist has revealed why it appears to be a clear sign of "dementia and cognitive decline." The clip, initially circulated on Tuesday, shows Trump exiting the official presidential helicopter, Marine One, greeted by two Marines as he proceeds ahead across the tarmac. As he does so, instead of walking straight ahead from the stairs out of the craft, he initially veers slightly to the left, then slightly back to the right, before finally seeming to walk off to the left some more. It is unclear from the clip, as it was circulated across social media, if there was any particular reason for this odd gait, leading to renewed speculation about it being a sign of physical or cognitive decline.

May 7, 2026 at 11:49 AM EDT
Top Republican warns against turning Supreme Court justices' testimony into a 'circus'

For the first time in seven years, Congress is asking Supreme Court justices to testify on their budget request, but the top Republican is warning against turning the appearances into a "circus." The Court wants an additional $14.6 million for security, and is slated to have a budget of $207 million -- an increase of nearly $44 million, according to Punchbowl News. That comes on top of a last-minute $30 million appropriated in January for security, Bloomberg Law reported.

May 7, 2026 at 11:45 AM EDT
Trump's collapsing voter enthusiasm creates a mess for GOP midterm chances

There has been much discussion of the headwinds Republicans face going into the November midterms. First, there is the simple fact that the president's party tends to lose seats in midterm elections no matter who is in the Oval Office. Then there is President Donald Trump's MAGA base, which has proven that it only comes out in large numbers when his name is on the ticket. And then there's the matter of his historic unpopularity, which has caused fractures with some of his most long-running supporters.

May 7, 2026 at 10:56 AM EDT
Inside Trump DOJ's push to reward MAGA 'grifters'

Under Donald Trump loyalist and Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, the post-Pam Bondi U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) continues to target Trump's foes --including former FBI Director James Comey, who is facing a grand jury indictment for, Blanche alleges, threatening to kill the president by posting, on Instagram, a photo that showed seashells arranged in a way to read "8647." Many of the legal experts featured on MS NOW, including Lisa Rubin and former DOJ federal prosector Barbara McQuade, believe the Comey indictment has no merit.

May 7, 2026 at 10:56 AM EDT
'Spineless MAGA gophers' quiet as Trump creates biggest 'job-killer in the country'

President Donald Trump's unending crisis is turning into "the most potent job-killer in the country," according to a new analysis from The Hill, which still seemingly is not enough to prompt pushback from the "spineless MAGA gophers" in Congress who have the power to stop it. Max Burns is a longtime Democratic strategist and frequent contributor to The Hill. In his latest piece from Thursday, he laid out the ways in which Trump's war with Iran is not just bankrupting troubled airlines, but the entire country as well, as personal debt soars and consumer confidence plummets.

May 6, 2026 at 10:05 PM EDT
Conservative says Dems plan big payback against Roberts court

The Supreme Court's recent decision to gut the 1965 Voting Rights Act has left both Democrats and Republicans scrambling to redistrict to their advantage -- and at least one conservative is warning that the liberal party will not only work to keep up but plan big payback for the court that made it all necessary. "Party leaders are already plotting how to counteract the gerrymanders that Republicans are expected to undertake in Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, and Louisiana," The Bulwark's Laura Egan wrote on Wednesday. "House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has pointed to New York, Illinois, Maryland, and Colorado as states where Democrats could redistrict ahead of the 2028 election cycle. Other Democratic officials whom I spoke with said there's discussion about pursuing redistricting in Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, and New Jersey as well."

May 6, 2026 at 9:45 PM EDT
Impoverished voters reach 'breaking point' over Trump's latest billionaire toy

Left Hook podcaster Wajahat Ali and guest host Danielle Moodie both say American voters are about to blow if President Donald Trump doesn't stop flashing around his lavish taxpayer-funded $1.4 billion sanctuary for him and his rich buddies. "The data is clear: over 60 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck,' said Ali. "A $400 emergency would bankrupt a majority of the population. Yet, we are told to celebrate a $1.4 billion ballroom that 'repels weapons.'"

May 6, 2026 at 9:04 PM EDT
Millionaire frets that CEOs will also suffer as consumers 'run out' of cash

The ongoing rise in prices under President Donald Trump, which is being exacerbated by the war in Iran, has prompted one food CEO to cut prices for his company's products as consumers "run out of money." "Consumers are literally running out of money toward the end of the month," Kraft Heniz Chief Executive Steve Cahillane told The Wall Street Journal's Jesse Newman in an interview that ran on Wednesday. "Being there with the right offering at the right time has never been more important."

May 6, 2026 at 8:32 PM EDT
Bad timing: Trump economy hammers red-state soup kitchen as client list balloons

President Donald Trump's economy has reached a point where it is impacting an institution upon which countless Americans rely for survival -- soup kitchens. Theresa Wilson, the owner of Rose of Sharon soup kitchen said the need for her services is "growing," reported AL.com's Megan Plotka on Wednesday.

May 6, 2026 at 6:45 PM EDT
Voters see 'self-dealing' Trump 'spitting in their face' as they dig for coupons

Puck Chief Political economist John Heilemann tells MS NOW anchor Nicole Wallace that he is spying the signs of President Donald Trump's sour economy in grocery lines even as Trump and his family continue to use the White House to enrich themselves. "It's not just that we're that the president has so many side hustles. " But it's that he has these side hustles and he's doing them out in the open at a time when people [are hurting,]" said Heilemann. "When I go around up here in my upstate purple part of New York, I go around to drugstores and supermarkets, and all of a sudden, I'm seeing people using coupons in a way that I haven't seen in a really long time. " [C]oupons never went away. But now it's like, I see it's like every time I'm in a line for anything, literally today at the supermarket, everybody in line is digging through their pockets for coupons because they're so stretched financially."

May 6, 2026 at 6:14 PM EDT
Sole industry floating Trump's stuttering economy is about to crash: report

The Wall Street Journal and other industry observers keep saying artificial intelligence investment is the one thing "saving" President Donald Trump's stock market time and again, as Trump's economy plateaus or tanks other stocks. However, Asad Ramzanali, director of AI and technology policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, says AI overinvestment and risky financial engineering have made an AI crash more likely. "I started [my research] not assuming we're in a bubble, but that if we are, we should be prepared. As I got deeper into this, I became convinced that we are in a period of overinvestment where the money going out the door in the industry, which is primarily for data centers and chips, doesn't match the money coming in," Ramzanali told Washington Monthly podcast, Senior Editor Anne Kim.