SOTU Comments – From the Left

Do not miss commentaries on President Trump's State of the Union address, "America -- and Democrats -- Got the State of the Union Speech They Deserved," by Contributing Pundit T.R. Davis, and "That's Entertainment," by Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay in The Gray Area.

Join the conversation – email editors@thehustings.news with ‘Left Column’ in the subject line.

End Stock Trading -- Last night I gave up two hours of my life to watch a madman spout delusion and grievance. According to Donald Trump, everything he does is the greatest thing anyone has ever done, and all the world's problems are caused by Democrats. I wish I lived in the world Trump described, with low drug prices, a booming economy, affordable healthcare, and worldwide respect for America. Overall, Trump didn't stray too far from the talking points he hits at every speech he gives, which tends to devolve into rally rhetoric. However, he did propose one policy that I would like to see enacted: an end to stock trading by Congress. Extend that to the White House and vote it into law. I'll hold my breath while I wait for that to happen. –Contributing Pundit K.E. Bell

Lacking in Fact Checking -- Reading coverage Wednesday morning, it seems clear to me that fact-checking Trump and his followers is the most secure job imaginable. It isn't even threatened by A.I.: since large language training sucks in social media posts, how would Claude et al ever know what's a lie from them? With no new policies announced, I don't think the speech (or Governor Spanberger's response, which was competent) changed any electoral prospects for this fall. – Contributing Pundit Hugh Hansen

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WEDNESDAY 2/25/26

Reality TV, Trump Edition

By Charles Dervarics

If you love reality television, President Trump’s State of the Union address was the place to be Tuesday night.

A man not known for much personal introspection, the president nonetheless likes to put on an entertaining show as he brought a litany of guests to illustrate his views on the economy, immigration, crime and foreign policy. By night’s end, he had awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom, two Medal of Honor awards, a Legion of Merit award and a Purple Heart.

Amid sagging poll numbers, Trump was at times optimistic about the nation’s economic outlook and confrontational with Democrats who oppose his policies.

On the economy, he blamed former President Joe Biden for high prices and said his administration had achieved a massive turnaround in just one year. “Our nation is back, bigger and richer and stronger than ever before,” he said. 

Large swaths of the public may disagree, as a new poll from ABC/Ipsos/Washington Post poll showed that 57% of respondents disagree with his handling of the economy.

Seeking to address such concerns, the president cited lower gas prices and mortgage rates, increased corporate investments in America, an end to tax on tips and overtime and lower tax burdens for many on Social Security. “The roaring economy is roaring like never before,” he said.

The president also promised a new policy that the federal government would match, up to $1,000, contributions to retirement plans for individuals who lack access to any corporate matching contributions. “A year ago we were a dead country. Now we are the hottest country in the world.”

While Trump’s immigration enforcement policies have drawn sharp criticism, he doubled down on that issue by citing incidents where American citizens were killed or injured by undocumented immigrants. His sharp remarks about how “unrestricted immigration and open borders” may contribute to US crime brought shouts from several Democrats.

Yet in a made-for-TV moment, the president asked his congressional audience where they stand on these issues. “If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support: The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”

Republicans stood and applauded at length while most Democrats stayed in their seats, to Trump’s dismay. 

Although foreign policy has occupied much of Trump’s attention in the past year, he spent comparatively little time on this issue other than noting that his administration continues to negotiate with Iran about its potential nuclear capacity. 

After the president’s speech — the longest in State of the Union history — Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger delivered the Democrats’ response. The state’s first female governor, Spanberger sharply criticized the president on immigration enforcement. 

"Our president has sent poorly trained federal agents into our cities where they have arrested and detained American citizens and people who aspire to be Americans," she said. "And they have done it without a warrant."

She also sharply criticized the president’s tariffs, saying these “reckless trade policies” are causing massive price increases. With a nod to the midterm congressional elections fast approaching, she added, “Democrats across the country are laser-focused on affordability” this year.

POSTED WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY 2/25-28/2026

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WEDNESDAY 2/25/26

SOTU Comments – From the Right

Do not miss commentaries on President Trump's State of the Union address, "That's Entertainment," by Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay, and "America -- and Democrats -- Got the State of the Union Speech They Deserved," by Contributing Pundit T.R. Davis, in The Gray Area.

Join the conversation – email editors@thehustings.news with ‘Right Column’ in the subject line.

Golden Age -- President Trump's 2026 State of the Union was a powerful showcase of America's resurgence — booming economy, secure borders, and bold leadership that puts America First. He avoided directly scolding the Supreme Court justices on tariffs, but had no issue chastising Democrats, stating “these people are crazy” and asking, “how do you not stand up for that?” 

Foreign policy weighed heavily, as all in Congress grasp the gravity of military action. Trump pledged to make peace where possible but said he won't hesitate to use force when necessary. It was an ominous warning, as he highlighted Iran's killing of an estimated 32,000 civilian protesters amid their ongoing nuclear enrichment and weapons pursuit: “I will never allow that to happen.”

A few lines drew extended applause, but one on the threat of criminal illegals stood out: “The first duty of the US government is to protect American citizens … not the illegal aliens.”

Trump’s speech featured extraordinary stagecraft in weaving honored guests throughout — Olympic champions, real heroes, everyday winners from his policies, and inspiring stories that brought the MAGA vision to life. He reflected on the dire economy and inflation under Biden, then expressed confidence that after one year of his policies, “our nation is back—it is indeed a turnaround for the ages.” The address was bold, honoring, positive, and convincing: “The Golden Age of America is upon us.” –Contributing Pundit Rich Corbett

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WEDNESDAY 2/25/26

SOTU Tonight

President Trump’s State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress is 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Pacific on Tuesday, February 24. 

You are invited to submit your comments on his address, and/or the Democratic response by Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger to be broadcast immediately after. Please indicate whether you lean left or right in your email’s subject line, to editors@thehustings.newsregardless of your opinion within, so we may post responses in the proper column.

The Supreme Court’s ruling Friday on Learning Resources Inc. v. Trump and the president’s tariff policy certainly will come up in his address Tuesday. We invite you to comment on this (and/or any other current) issue, as well with an email to the above address (with your political leanings in the subject line). 

For more on the SCOTUS decision, read our news/aggregate/analysis in the center column, and don’t miss Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s “Words Matter” in the right column. 

You also are invited to our first Talking With, Not At/Donuts & Debate; “Has the Trump economy made life more affordable for Americans?” at The Allen Theatre & Salamander Bookstore Café in Annville Township, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, March 11. EMAIL us at editors@thehustings.news to confirm your attendance. It’s free and open to the public as audience members or participants in the debate. --Editors

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MONDAY 2/23/26

…meanwhile…

Trump's press conference Friday on SCOTUS ruling striking down some of his tariffs [The White House].

TUESDAY 2/24/26

Four Years of War in Ukraine – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Antonio Costa and leaders from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia, Norway and Sweden arrived in Kyiv Tuesday, the fourth anniversary of Russian dictator/President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The leaders have scheduled high-level meetings aimed at reinforcing Western support, The Kyiv Independent reports, and coincides with meetings of the Coalition of the Willing and the Ukraine-Nordic-Baltic summit.

Meanwhile, the Independent reports, the European Union has failed to approve its 20th sanction package on Russia after Kremlin-ally Hungary vetoed the measure. 

“Unfortunately, we did not reach an agreement on the 20th sanction package,” EU Foreign Policy Chief Kaja Kallas said. “This is a setback and a message we didn’t want to send today, but the work continues.”

•••

Missing Epstein Files – An NPR investigation reviewing the latest tranche of Epstein Files released in January finds the Department of Justice has withheld more than 50 pages of FBI interviews and notes that include a conversation with a woman who accused Donald J. Trump of sexual abuse decades ago, when she was a minor. The documents were categorized by the Justice Department but not shared publicly, NPR reported Tuesday on Morning Edition. 

The radio network’s investigation reviewed multiple sets of unique serial numbers appearing before and after the pages in question, stamped onto documents in the Epstein Files database, FBI case records, emails and discovery documents in the January release. Listen to NPR’s report HERE.

•••

What the Puck – Everyone to the left of MAGA is criticizing, and MAGA is celebrating, FBI Director Kash Patel’s celebration of the US men’s hockey team overtime win against Canada for Olympic gold in Milan Sunday. Patel, an avowed hockey fan, watched the game from the stadium, then joined the US squad in the locker room for celebration, where he chugged and sprayed beer and sang and danced with members of the team, according to The Sporting News. 

CBS News reports that Patel arrived in Milan, Italy, last Thursday on a $60 million government jet. There, he conducted meetings with various officials and law enforcement partners, FBI Assistant Director for Public Affairs Ben Williamson tweeted on X-Twitter. 

After the win, President Trump invited the men’s hockey team to visit him in the White House and added he would have to invite the US women’s hockey team – who also beat Canada for the gold in Milan – “or I’d be impeached.”  —TL

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Tariffs Off? -- MONDAY 2/23/26

SCOTUS Keeps It – For now. The most positive takeaway from Friday’s Supreme Court ruling is that six of the nine justices chose to remind President Trump that Congress determines tariff policy, not the White House. 

The upshot is that importers want their tariff payments back. According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, the US collected $289 billion in tariffs in 2025 and another $35 billion this year up to February 18. Trump has floated the idea of rebating those billions in tax rebates of some sort to the American public, but that won’t happen any tax season soon.

There’s also the question of what happens to special deals Trump made with other countries on tariffs.

In his press conference hours after SCOTUS handed down its decision Friday morning, Trump lamented the court spent months to come to its decision and still failed to weigh in on refunds. Instead, lower courts that punted Learning Resources Inc. v. Trump up to SCOTUS will have to figure that out.

“Wouldn’t you think they would have put one sentence in there saying, ‘keep the money’ or ‘don’t keep the money,’ right?” Trump told reporters, per Politico. “I guess it has to get litigated for the next two years.”

Trump accused the six-justice SCOTUS majority of being “afraid of doing the right thing” and said they are motivated by foreign interests. The president said he is “ashamed” of them and singled out the two of his three appointees that voted with the majority.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing, and I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country,” the president said.

On Saturday, Trump announced an increase in global tariffs from 10% up to 15%, under Section 122 of the Trade Acts of 1974, which allows the president to set tariffs up to that amount for 150 days, according to The Wall Street Journal. Afterward, Trump says, Section 301 of the Trade Act requires new trade investigations before allowing long-term tariffs.

On Morning Edition, Neal Katyal, attorney for the plaintiffs, told Steve Inskeep the federal government already has told his clients they would get a refund for tariffs paid, plus interest. 

“I do” think refunds, plus interest, applies to the rest of the country, he said. “I think basically there’s a common-sense principle, if, you know, you’ve collected a bunch of money illegally, and the court says it’s illegal, then you’ve got to give it back.”

Katyal calls out Trump appointee Gorsuch for picking up on, in his concurrence with the majority opinion, “the long, long tradition going all the way back to the Federalist Papers of why our founders divided power and why they insisted Congress be in the driver’s seat.”

Every American should read the conclusion in Gorsuch’s concurrence, he said. You can read it in The Gray Area HERE. – Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 2/23/26

Words Matter

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Why does he think countries are “ripping us off”? Or are “treating us badly”?

Why has Donald Trump been, and why does he continue to be, so agitated, by international trade?

Doesn’t he realize that it is because we — the American people — want to buy stuff from those other countries because we find it financially advantageous to do so? Or perhaps we simply want to get a Mercedes from Stuttgart rather than a Cadillac Optiq (which is built in Mexico)?

As anyone who paid close attention to Schoolhouse Rock knows, the parts of speech in the SCOTUS ruling are as important as the ruling itself:

  • “Each of the nine verbs. …”
  • “… the eight other verbs in §1702(a)(1)(B) are simply wasted ink”
  • “’Regulate’ is one of the nine verbs…”
  • “… one of nine verbs …”
  • “Those verbs are followed by 11 objects … .”
  • “Combine the verbs and objects … .”
  • “Each of the listed verbs — 'investigate, block during the pendency of an investigation, regulate, direct and compel, nullify, void, prevent or prohibit’… .”

“But as the Government thoroughly explains, when a statute contains a long string of verbs and nouns, each term should be understood in context. The relevant section of IEEPA contains nine verbs and 11 objects, for a total of 99 combinations. We do not need to construe each word of the statute to ensure that it is perfectly aligned in all 99 pairings.”

So while much of it is parsing, it is fairly straightforward in what the SCOTUS decision says, which is that Congress is the one that should impose tariffs. As it says in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution: “The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States … .”

That’s where the tariff power comes from.

Chief Justice Roberts, in his written opinion for the majority, is forthright about this: “Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution sets forth the powers of the Legislative Branch.  The first Clause of that provision specifies that “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.” It is no accident that this power appears first. The power to tax was, Alexander Hamilton explained, ‘the most important of the authorities proposed to be conferred upon the Union.’”

Roberts went on to note: “Recognizing the taxing power’s unique importance, and having just fought a revolution motivated in large part by ‘taxation without representation,’ the Framers gave Congress alone . . . access to the pockets of the people.”

That’s right. Again, for those who gained much of their knowledge about things from Schoolhouse Rock, the whole “No taxation without representation!” thing and the Boston Tea Party should resonate strongly.

It seems as though there are plenty in Congress who evidently grew up without TVs.

One part of Article I, Section 8 that doesn’t get the attention that it deserves is this infinitive clause: “To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations … .”

One of the things that Trump is doing with the tariffs is regulating commerce with foreign nations, and he isn’t shy about pointing that out.

Again, this is something Congress should do, not the president.

But where the president does have power in this regard is when there is a “national emergency.”

As the Supreme Court points out: “The President declared a national emergency as to both threats, deeming them ’unusual and extraordinary,’ and invoked his authority under IEEPA to respond.”

The two threats are fentanyl said to be coming in from Canada and Mexico. The other is the trade deficit that the US is running with other countries.

Let’s look at those two adjectives, unusual and extraordinary.

Drug smuggling is certainly in the top five of oldest professions. There’s nothing uncommon or rare about it.

Is fentanyl bad? Certainly. Should efforts be made to stop it from coming into the US? Certainly.

But by imposing tariffs?

And as for the trade deficit being “unusual and extraordinary”: the newly minted United States of America, despite having fought a war with it for over eight years, racked up a trade deficit with the United Kingdom.

That’s right: the US has had a trade deficit for as long as there’s been the US.

So why are these things considered emergencies?

While the word “emergency” doesn’t appear in the Constitution, so those jurors who are textualists are out of luck, there is still the sense of those who are originalists, who are looking at the public use of language at the time.

According to Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language (1755), an emergency is “A state of things that arises unexpectedly; an unforeseen occurrence.”

And in Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), an emergency is “Any event or occasional combination of circumstances that calls for immediate action.”

Again, emergencies?

In a piece published on February 12 in its Liberty Street Economics newsletter titled “Who Is Paying for the 2025 US Tariffs?”, the New York Fed authors explain that the cost of tariffs are paid for by the importers (think Amazon or Walmart), and that the importers can absorb all of the costs or pass some on to the consumers. They calculate that during the first eight months of 2025 (they needed some time to run the numbers, so they didn’t run through December) “94% of the tariff incidence was borne by the US”

In effect, by imposing tariffs, President Trump is imposing a tax on the American people.

Unsurprisingly, the next day National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett went on CNBC and called it “The worst paper I’ve ever seen” and the lowest-quality work in the “history of the Federal Reserve system.”

Hassett provided heat. No light in terms of facts or figures.

On February 20, the same day of the Supreme Court ruling, the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the US Department of Commerce reported: “Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025 (October, November, and December), according to the advance estimate released today by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 4.4%.”

That’s right, GDP was three points lower in the fourth quarter as tariffs fully kicked in, than it was in the third quarter. Lower.

What’s more: “The price index for gross domestic purchases increased 2.6 percent in 2025, compared with an increase of 2.4 percent in 2024.” In other words, what it costs to buy things in the US increased in 2025 compared to Sleepy Joes’ final year in office.

Could it be because other countries are “ripping us off” or because there is a “national emergency”?

Or is it simply because the man who announced on Friday, shortly after the SCOTUS ruling, that he is using Section 122, which allows him to impose tariffs of not more than 15%, for 150 days before Congress gets involved, and Section 301, which requires an investigation into unfair trade practices before it can be utilized (the investigation will be made by the likes of Hassert) really isn’t good at economics.

When US importers start passing along some of the hits they’ve been absorbing from the now-overturned tariffs, Trump and his party are going to find themselves in a national emergency in November because consumers are going to find things even more expensive than they are today.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

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MONDAY 2/23/26

Civil Rights Leader Remembered

The Rev. Jesse Jackson was "a good man, with lots of personality, grit and 'street smarts,'" President Trump said of the civil rights leader who died Wednesday (per Newsweek). Jackson was 84. Jackson ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 1984 and again in 1988, when he finished second in state primaries won, after Gov. Michael Dukakis and ahead of Sen. Al Gore.

How Is Your Economy?

Stephen Macaulay makes his case, as never-Trumper pundit-at-large writing mostly for our right (conservative) column that mostly every American’s economy is costlier after a year of the Trump administration. 

Whether you agree – as conservative or liberal – or disagree –as a liberal or conservative – we now offer two ways your voice may be heard.

  1. Become a citizen pundit and email your thoughts on this question (and/or on any of the political questions covered here, or should be covered here) with an email to editors@thehustings.news and please keep it civil. Also, be sure to indicate your political leanings in the subject line so we may post your comments in the proper (right or left) column.
  2. Join us for the first in our Talking With, Not At … Debate & Donuts series at The Allen Theatre & Salamander Bookstore Café in Annville Township, Pennsylvania, 6 p.m. Eastern Time Wednesday, March 11. EMAIL us at editors@thehustings.news to confirm your attendance. It’s free and open to the public. --Editors

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PRESIDENTS DAY MONDAY 2/16/26

SCOTUS Nixes Tariffs

IEEPA Does Not Authorize Trump Tariffs -- President Trump cannot impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) the US Supreme Court has ruled in Learning Resources Inc. v. Trump. In its ruling Friday morning, Chief Justice John Roberts Friday writes; "The President asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope. In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it."

Roberts read a 10-minute summary of the decision Friday morning with no oral dissents. SCOTUSblog reports a 6-3 decision with Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh dissenting. Solicitor Gen. John Sauer and attorney Neal Katyal, who argued against the tariffs, were present in court for the opinion.

•••

Disappointing GDP – Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at an annual rate of just 1.4% for the fourth quarter of 2025, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That’s less than expected according to APR’s Marketplace, which notes the government shutdown last autumn and softer-than-expected holiday spending did not help. Annual GDP growth was 4.4% for the previous quarter.

Meanwhile … Touring a steel plant in Rome, Georgia, Thursday President Trump said this: “What word have you not heard the last few weeks? Affordability. Because I won. I won affordability.”

Trump cited lower gas and used car prices, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.

•••

10 Days in February/March – President Trump at his first Board of Peace meeting in Washington Thursday “weighed” a limited strike against military or government targets in Iran if he does not get a nuclear deal with the country, The Wall Street Journal reports.

“We’re going to make a deal or get a deal one way or another,” Trump said. 

He said he would decide within the next 10 days. Later, his timeline was expanded to two weeks.

“Only President Trump knows what he may or may not do,” said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly. 

This all came amidst a military buildup with 12 warships in the region, including a second strike group led by the USS Gerald R. Ford.

“There’s another beautiful armada floating beautifully toward Iran right now,” Trump said. 

About the board … The Board of Peace in its first meeting pledged $7 billion from member countries to contribute to the rebuilding of Gaza, even as disarming Hamas “remains a challenge,” according to Semafor. Chairman for Life Donald J. Trump said the US will donate $10 billion to the board, though he did not suggest where the tax money would come from (or where the money might end up after he leaves the White House, while remaining chairman, in 2029). 

Amidst concerns that the Board of Peace, which has been joined by such countries as Hungary, Argentina, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan, but not France, Germany, Denmark, the UK or Canada will replace the United Nations, CfL Trump suggested it will ensure the UN will “run properly” and hinted at future involvement elsewhere. –TL

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THURSDAY 2/19/26

(Ex-) Royal Arrest – Police arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, ‘Randy Andy’ Thursday morning after the latest release of Epstein Files by the US Department of Justice revealed that the Andrew formerly known as Prince had released sensitive government documents and commercial information to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein while serving as the UK’s trade envoy. The Guardian quotes former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown saying, “I have submitted a five-page memorandum to the Metropolitan, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley and other relevant UK police constabularies.”

Ex-Prince Andrew’s brother, King Charles, said the “law must take its course.”

Police searched Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s former house at the Royal Lodge in Windsor, as well as addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk, according to the newspaper. The former prince turned 66 Thursday.

•••

The Art of Dragging Out Peace Talks – It has been repeated many times by critics of the current administration that President Trump had promised to bring peace to Ukraine on day-one of his second term. Thanks to a deal Moscow is dangling in front of the White House, it looks like it will not happen without Ukraine’s surrender of all the Donbas region and probably questionable security guarantees from the US and NATO. 

After two days of trilateral negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and White House son-in-law Jared Kushner mediating, even Ukrainian diplomats indicated a bit of progress (perhaps the progress is that they were at the same table with the Kremlin and Washington?). 

That might not matter if President Trump bites at Kremlin negotiators led by Vladimir Medinsky who have placed $14 trillion worth of business deals between Russia and the US on the table in exchange for the US dropping its sanctions. The Kremlin’s offer was reported by NPR’s Charles Maynes on Morning Edition.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the talks brought the sides closer to a detailed framework for ceasefire monitoring, according to The Kyiv Independent, but the “political track” remains contentious, especially on the issue of territory.

Zelenskyy told Piers Morgan on YouTube’s Piers Morgan Uncensored: "Thousands, dozens of thousands of Ukrainians have been killed on this direction, defending this part of Ukraine. We have to understand that Donbas is part of our independence. It’s a part of our values. It’s not about the land. It’s not only about territories. It’s about people.” –TL

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WEDNESDAY 2/18/26

‘Difficult’ Peace Talks – Results of the second day of trilateral talks with the US mediating peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia might be called “mixed,” though on the positive side of mixed. The second day of negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, ended after approximately two hours, according to news reports.

Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky described the talks “difficult but practical” and said the next session is expected “soon,” while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his countries are ready to monitor a ceasefire, if there is political will to enforce it, The Kyiv Independent reports. 

“They have basically agreed on almost everything,” Zelenskyy said, leaving open the question of what sticking points remain as the Russia’s war on Ukraine approaches its fifth year. 

Monitoring would definitely involve the US, Zelenskyy said, calling this a constructive signal.

“We can see that some ground work has been laid, but positions remain different, as the negotiations were difficult,” Zelenskyy said.

•••

The Paramount View – CNN’s Anderson Cooper announced he is leaving CBS News’ 60 Minutes Tuesday, as millions of fans of CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert flocked to that show’s YouTube channel to watch the host’s interview with US Senate candidate and Texas Democratic state Rep. James Talarico. By early Wednesday, Colbert’s interview with Talarico had chalked up 5.3 million views on YouTube.

Colbert told viewers Monday that CBS attorneys had warned him “in no uncertain terms” that he “could not have” Talarico, who is campaigning for the Democratic nomination for the seat currently held by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), “on the broadcast.” This came after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr suggested that talk shows might no longer be exempt from the “equal time” rule requiring all candidates in a political race be given the chance to appear.

On Tuesday’s Late Show, Colbert displayed a copy of a statement released by CBS attorneys that the show “was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep. James Talarico. The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled. The Late Show decided to present the interview through its YouTube channel with on-air promotion on the broadcast rather than potentially providing the equal-time options.”

Colbert countered the attorneys’ Tuesday statement, telling his Tuesday night audience that “every word” of Monday night’s script that revealed CBS attorneys’ prohibition of the Talarico interview was “approved by CBS’s lawyers who, for the record, approve every script that goes on the air.”

The host then “curbed” the attorneys’ contradicting printed statement in a dog-poop bag. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is scheduled to end in May, and it’s clear Colbert is prepared for a potential early exit.

Applying the equal time rule to broadcasts of The Late Show or Jimmy Kimmel Live would require five interviews prior to the Texas primary March 3, including Talarico and fellow Democrat and US Rep. Crockett. Cornyn is being challenged in a who’s-MAGAier race on the GOP side by Texas Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton and US Rep. Wesley Hunt.

On Morning Edition Wednesday, NPR’s David Folkenflik connected censorship of broadcast of the Colbert-Talarico interview with CBS owner Paramount-Skydance’s attempt to buy Warner Brothers Discovery. Paramount-Skydance is owned by David Ellison, son of Trump supporter and Oracle founder Larry Ellison. The attempted purchase is funded in part by the sovereign wealth funds of Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, Folkenflik noted. And target of their intended purchase, Warner Brothers Discovery, owns among other media entities, CNN, whose premier prime time news show is Anderson Cooper 360. –TL

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TUESDAY 2/17/26

Geneva Twofer – Indirect talks between the US and Iran have resumed Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland, The New York Timesreports, with White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and White House son-in-law Jared Kushner also taking on US-Russia-Ukraine peace talks in a two-day meeting. This US diplomacy double-duty doesn’t bode well for Ukraine’s interests, as Russia has signaled it will take a harder line on a peace deal, according to The Kyiv Independent. 

“This time, we intend to discuss a wider range of issues,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “including, in fact, the main issue that concerns both the territories and everything else related to our demands.”

Oman Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi is hosting US-Iranian talks, according to the NYT, with emphasis as usual on the Trump administration’s attempt to halt Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. The White House has ordered a buildup of US forces in the region, including two aircraft carriers. Countries in the region are worried potential US strikes on Iran could destabilize the Middle East and endanger US allies that host American soldiers in the region.

Iranian diplomats have indicated a willingness to pause enrichment of uranium, according to The Wall Street Journal, move some stockpiles offshore to a third party such as Russia and in an appeal to Trump’s Art of the Deal inclinations, cut business deals with the US. But Iran has not floated the definitive halt to enrichment that Trump has demanded.

Trump’s deployment of two aircraft carriers to the region in fact has been countered by this bellicose reaction from Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Khamenei: “An aircraft carrier is certainly a dangerous piece of equipment. But more dangerous than the carrier is the weapon that can send it to the bottom of the sea.” –TL

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After Munich -- PRESIDENTS DAY 2/16/26

Dealing With Russia – Special envoy Steve Witkoff and White House son-in-law Jared Kushner are “upbeat” about the latest round of talks with Russia and Ukraine to begin Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is a bit more cautious.

“The answer is, we don’t know. We don’t know the Russians are serious about ending the war,” Rubio said, per NPR’s Charles Maynes on Morning Edition. “They say they are, and under what terms they’re willing to do it and whether we can find terms that are acceptable to Ukraine that Russia will agree to. But we’re going to continue to do it.” 

The Kremlin indicates it prefers diplomacy to war, but that its victory is inevitable and will continue to take it by force to the point it can convince the US that Ukraine’s case – including holding on to the portion of territory in Donbas Oblast that it hasn’t already lost to Russia – is hopeless. The Kremlin is trying to convince the Trump White House that once it is past this, Russia and the US can get back to business and investment, Maynes reports. Witkoff sees doing business in the region is key to bridging differences with Ukraine, he says.

At the Munich Security Conference last weekend Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “The Americans often return to the topic of concessions and too often those discussions are … discussed only in the context of Ukraine. Not Russia.”

Kinder, gentler US … Last year Vice President JD Vance chastised Europe for stifling freedom of speech by limiting access to Europe’s far-right politicians and parties. This year Rubio told the conference Europe and the US “belong together,” The New York Times reports. 

“We want Europe to be strong,” Rubio said. World Wars I and II are a reminder that “our destiny is and always will be intertwined with yours.”

UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer, who so far has survived revelations in the Epstein Files that his ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, leaked sensitive government documents to Jeffrey Epstein, conceded at the conference that it’s time for Europe to step up and defend itself. 

“As Europe, we must stand on our own two feet,” Starmer said.

Meanwhile, Hungary … At a joint press conference in Budapest Rubio told Viktor Orbán, who is up for re-election April 12, that President Trump is “deeply committed to your success,” The Guardian reports Monday.

“We are entering the golden era of relations between our countries and not simply because of the alignment of our people,” Rubio said. “But because of the relationship you have with the president of the United States.”

Last Saturday Orbán, Hungary’s PM since 2010, told the Munich Security Conference that the European Union, not Russia, is the “real threat” to his Hungary. Orbán’s Fidesz is effectively Hungary’s only party, and another term is virtually guaranteed in eight weeks.

Trump’s support, then, is of very little surprise.

Killing of a Russian dissident … Monday, February 16 – Presidents Day in the US – marks two years since the killing of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny in a maximum-security prison in the Russian Arctic. On Saturday, the foreign ministries of Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands released a statement that Navalny’s body showed the presence of traces of epibatidine, a toxic substance found in a South American frog, according to The New York Times. 

“Epibatidine is a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America,” the statement reads. “It is not found naturally in Russia.”

After a weeklong battle in 2024, Russia released Navalny’s body to his mother, according to the report.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria V. Zakharova told the state-owned Tass news agency that the statement from the five European nations is a “PR campaign to deflect attention from pressing issues in the West.”

Addressing the Munich Security Conference Saturday, the dissident’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said, “I want to repeat: Vladimir Putin killed my husband, Alexei Navalny, using a chemical weapon. Of course, it’s not news that Vladmir Putin is a killer, but now we have yet another direct piece of proof.” –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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PRESIDENTS DAY MONDAY 2/16/26

Revisiting “The Groceries” & Other Things You Need

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

In August 2024, while campaigning, then-candidate Donald Trump, surrounded by milk, meat, eggs, and packaged foods — items that he was later to begin calling “the groceries,” which he defined as “a bag with different things in it” — said he would reduce prices to consumers “on day one,” the same day he was going to end the war in Ukraine.

This reduced-grocery prices claim became one of his pledges throughout the campaign, along with …

  • border and immigration efforts focused on “the worst of the worst” (according to CBS News, citing a Department of Homeland Security document, “Less than 14% of the nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in President Trump’s first year back in the White House had charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses,” which pretty much puts the lie to that “worst” claim); 
  • he would put tariffs on those countries that have been “ripping us off” (curiously, there is a 50% tariff on goods from Brazil and we have a trade surplus with that country, which makes the “ripping us off” remark somewhat odd) and would grow US manufacturing (according to the National Association of Manufacturers, “Employment in the sector has been in decline over the past year,” with said year being 2025);
  • he would reduce energy prices by 50% within 12 months and as a result, “everything comes down” in terms of their prices (January 20, 2026, 12 months later, no one has seen their energy costs go down by 50% unless they’ve stopped driving and decided they really don’t need to use their appliances or furnace).

On February 13 the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, which was hailed as a victory for the administration, as there was a mere 0.2% increase in January over December. Almost nothing.

Thing is, very few people only bought things in January. So another set of numbers in the BLS release need to be considered.

These are the “Unadjusted 12-mons. ended Jan. 26.”

In other words, the tracking of the rise since January 2025.

“All items” are up 2.4%, which is certainly more than that 0.2%.

Food? Up 2.1%.

Energy is down — but 49.9% off Trump’s 50% decrease number. It is down 0.1%.

But those using electricity saw a 6.3% rise, and those who have natural gas piped to their homes saw a 9.8% increase.

Apparel? Up 1.7%. Shelter? Up 2.9%. Need medical care? Up 3.9%.

In other words, the groceries have gone up in price as have plenty of other consumer products.

Meanwhile, the president is spending his time on things like ballrooms and arches … and golf.

On more than one occasion Donald Trump criticized Barack Obama for spending too much time playing golf and not enough time doing the job he was elected to do.

In his two terms in office Obama played golf 333 times. That was 113 in his first term and 220 in his second.

During his first term Trump played golf 261 times. According to didtrumpgolftoday.com, he has played golf 97 days out of his 392 days back in office. 

261 + 97= 358.

And he still has nearly three years to go.

Yes, the man is working hard to bring down prices for the American people, just like he said he would.

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PRESIDENTS DAY MONDAY 2/16/26

Talking With, Not At …

“Has the Trump economy made life more affordable for Americans?” That’s the Debate & Donuts topic at The Allen Theatre & Salamander Bookstore Café in Annville Township, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, March 11, and you are invited. EMAIL us at editors@thehustings.news to confirm your attendance. It’s free and open to the public.

•Don’t miss Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s column, “Jesus Wept” in The Gray Area.

Scroll down the page with the trackbar on the far-right to read, in the left column …

•Contributing Pundit Hugh Hansen’s quick take, “About Lion King Trump.

•Contributing Pundit K.E. Bell’s commentary, “Can the Dems Find Their Spine?”

More Macaulay in the right column: “Do Laws Matter to Conservatives?” 

Scroll down the page with the trackbar on the far right to read …

•”Truth.”

•“Diplomacy & Dollars.” 

To read any column to the end, scroll down with the trackbar in each individual column.

We welcome civilly stated comments from across the political spectrum on news/aggregate/analysis and commentary published in The Hustings at editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line so we may post your comments in the proper (right or left) column. --Editors

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TUESDAY 2/10/26

January CPI Is +2.4%

The Consumer Price Index for the 12 months ending January was up 2.4%, after a CPI of 2.7% in December, the Labor Department reports. Month-over-month inflation was +0.2%, with shelter the largest factor, also up 0.2%. Food prices rose 0.2% and food away from home rose 0.1%, while energy prices were down 1.5% for the month. [CHART: Bureau of Labor Statistics]

Homeland Shutdown – The US is left with a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security this weekend as Capitol Hill lawmakers skipped town Thursday after failing to secure an agreement on appropriations before its two-week extension runs out. Both Senate and House are scheduled to be on recess next week, with bipartisan negotiations on an immigration plan to continue in the meantime, CQ Roll Call reports. If leaders of both chambers reach a deal, Congress members will have 48 hours notice to return for a vote.

With $70 billion in separate funding included in President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency will not soon be affected. 

The Senate on Thursday fell short of the 60 votes needed to pass the House appropriations bill for Homeland Security, 52-47, with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) the only Democrat to vote with Republicans, and Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) flipping to a “no” to allow him to consider the spending bill at a later time, according to Roll Call.

•••

Airing Grievances – President Trump has quashed yet another Obama-era policy, the Endangerment Finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses threaten public health and welfare. The Environmental Protection Agency Thursday is dropping adherence to the Endangerment Finding, allowing it to drop legal authority to regulate greenhouse gasses, NPR’s All Things Considered reports.

“Under President Trump’s leadership today, the Trump EPA has finalized the single largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States of America,” EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said at the White House, with Trump looking on.

The president says automakers now will be allowed to build bigger, better cars and trucks. The regulations pushed up new and used vehicle prices while hurting their drive quality, Trump suggests. 

While auto executives have long decried emissions and fuel economy standards, they are not about to abandon the years and $billions they have spent on cleaner, more fuel-efficient engines as well as electric and hybrid powertrains. What the new rules will do is allow them to sell a larger share of V-8- and six-cylinder-powered cars and trucks, which will spew higher levels of greenhouse gasses.

And the automakers will want to sell more of them, because V-8s and sixes generally are used in bigger, more expensive – and more profitable -- vehicles.

The new Trump-Zeldin EPA rule allows for 30-days public comment after publication in the Federal Register. Expect myriad lawsuits from environmental groups.

•••

Unemployment Rate Notches Down to 4.3% -- The US added 130,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department reported early this week. Employment in health care, social assistance and construction rose while the numbers for the federal government and financial activities fell. The 4.3% unemployment rate fell slightly from 4.4% in December. But the Labor Department later in the week downgraded its job growth numbers for all of 2025, from the 584,000 new jobs initially reported to just 181,000. That revised number for the whole year does make January’s number look even better. –TL

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THURSDAY 2/12/26

Kelly’s Rank Retained – US District Judge Richard Leon Thursday blocked efforts by the War/Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth-run Pentagon to censure Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and lower his retirement rank, The Hill reports, over a video in which he advises active service members they have a duty to reject unlawful orders. Kelly had sued the Pentagon after Hegseth initiated retirement grade determination proceedings against Kelly, a retired US Navy captain. 

Judge Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, acknowledged that active-duty military face free speech restrictions to preserve discipline, but retired veterans do not. The Pentagon’s actions “clearly pass the bar” for retaliation, Leon said in his ruling, and would chill the speech of other veterans. 

Early this week, a grand jury declined to indict Kelly and five other Democrats, Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Reps. Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Jason Chow of Colorado, for their November video reminding active duty military they do not have to obey illegal orders (per TIME). 

The six Democratic lawmakers already are cashing in on this latest rebuke of the Justice Department’s attempted indictments against President Trump’s political enemies by building their campaign war chests, according to Politico.

•••

Johnson Sort of Reprimands DOJ – Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said Thursday the Justice Department should not track House members’ searches of the Epstein Files, The Hill reports.

“My understanding is that there are computers set up where the DOJ was allowing access to the files. And I think members obviously have the right to peruse those at their own speed and with their own discretion,” he told reporters. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for anybody to be tracking that. So, I will echo that to anybody involved with the DOJ. And I’m sure it was an oversight. That’s my guess, OK?”

•••

ICE Puddle – Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis is drawing down, Trump administration immigration czar Tom Homan told a presser Thursday morning, Minnesota Public Radio’s MPR News reports. 

“I have proposed, and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude,” Homan said. “A significant drawdown has been underway this week and will continue through next week.”

Homan addressed reporters at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in the Twin Cities, which has been the basis for immigration crackdown operations and houses a Department of Homeland Security facility used to detain people.

A small contingent of DHS personnel, including Homan, will remain to “close out and transition full command and control” to the Twin Cities fieldhouse of about 150 officers, he said. 

•••

Unfunding Security – The Senate is ready to skip town Thursday with no progress toward funding the Department of Homeland Security in time to avoid its partial shutdown Friday, CQ Roll Call reports. Requiring judicial warrants and the badging and de-masking of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers remain sticking points between Senate Democrats and Republicans. 

“As soon as we can strike a deal, we’ll vote on it,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said. “Until then, I don’t know if there is any point in keeping people around here, sitting around and doing nothing. I think it’s important that the people at the negotiating table double down, sharpen their pencils and strike a deal.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), said; “If they don’t propose something that’s strong, that reins in ICE, that ends the killing, don’t expect our votes.” 

•••

Roy Cohn Would be Proud – Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi appeared to be channeling Roy Cohn via Trump with her über-combative testimony before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday, where she arrived with an “opposition research” binder-full of attacks and insults. Bondi cited specific crimes in the districts of Democrats on the committee and reminded them of stock market performance under the second Trump administration, The Hill reports, while reminding them she considers Trump the best and most effective president in the history of the republic.

House members who viewed the latest tranche of Epstein Files with redactions removed at the Justice Department recently, were recorded by the department to keep track of which specific documents they studied, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told NPR’s Morning Edition Thursday. They were not allowed to make copies, take pictures of or take notes on the files, she said.

At one point in the Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) told Bondi he would “like to see you flip to the Jared Moscowitz section of the binder. I’m interested to see what staff provided on the opposition to me,” according to The Hill’s coverage.

Bondi refused to acknowledge at least 11 victims of Jeffrey Epstein assembled in the audience by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA). When pressed to apologize to them for redacting the names and information of men in the files while failing to redact their names and pictures, Bondi said she was sorry about the way Epstein treated them. 

Jayapal showed an email exchange between Epstein and another associate which concealed the identification of Epstein’s associate, then another file that publicly listed victims’ names.

Bondi said she would work to fix any improper redaction in files. But she asked why Biden administration Attorney Gen. Merrick Garland didn’t get this sort of scrutiny from lawmakers.

“This is bigger than Watergate,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) replied, adding that the Epstein scandal goes back at least four administrations, to Presidents Obama and George W. Bush. “This cover-up spans decades, you are responsible for this portion of it.”

As if Bondi needed to be any more solid with her boss, she accused Massie – a rare Republican congressmember who has been pushing back against the Trump administration – of “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

In an especially loud and angry exchange, Bondi called former constitutional law professor Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD); “You washed-up loser lawyer. You’re not even a lawyer.”

To Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY); “You’re about as good of a lawyer today as you were when you tried to impeach President Trump in 2016.” [Trump, who began his first term in 2017, was first impeached in 2019. And again in 2021.]

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) referred to Bondi as, “Our witness who somehow is a lawyer but does not understand how [testifying] works.” –TL

_____________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 2/11/26

UPDATE: Despite his name coming up in the Epstein Files, Casey Wasserman will remain chairman of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics Organizing Committee, the organization announced Wednesday (per USA Today).

The Truth is Out There – Peter Mandelson resigned from the Labour Party and the House of Lords, and in his role as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s ambassador to the US last week after the latest – last? – tranche of Epstein Files revealed that Mandelson leaked sensitive government documents to, and accepted money from, the late convicted child sex trafficker. 

And let’s not forget the Andrew formerly known as Prince, and Duke of York. The British certainly won’t.

Sources told The Wall Street Journal in an exclusive scoop that the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee has called a meeting Wednesday to “address the status” of LA28 Chairman Casey Wasserman, whose name also has surfaced in the Epstein Files. Singer Chappell Roan and retired US women’s soccer star Abby Wambach both have announced they are no longer clients of Wasserman’s eponymous talent agency.

Meanwhile … Howard Lutnick remains in his role as the Trump administration’s commerce secretary, after the Epstein Files caught him out in a lie when he said a 2005 tour of Epstein’s home, next door to his in New York City, left Lutnick and his wife “disturbed.” It was their only formal meeting with the child sex trafficker, Lutnick maintained … before the latest tranche of files were released.

Those files show Lutnick and his wife, children and their nanny had lunch with Epstein on his private island in 2012, a year after Lutnick had a one-hour long engagement with Epstein at his home, according to The Associated Press.

Lutnick “remains a very important member of President Trump’s team,” White House Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in response to reporters’ questions, “and the president fully supports the secretary.”

The commerce secretary appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee Tuesday, where Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) told Lutnick; “There’s not an indication that you yourself engaged in any wrongdoing with Jeffrey Epstein. It’s the fact that you believe that you misled the country and the Congress based on your earlier statements.”

Van Hollen requested Lutnick provide documentation of any ties to Epstein, AP reports.

Several Republicans also questioned Lutnick’s relationship with Epstein, including Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), who said his visit to the island “would raise questions,” and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who said “It’s something I’m concerned with.” –TL

_____________________________________________

TUESDAY 2/10/26

Redacted E-Files – Two congressmen, Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) walk into the Justice Department to read portions of the Epstein Files with the redactions unredacted. They find at least six erstwhile redacted names of individuals “likely incriminated” by their inclusion in the Epstein Files, The Hill reports. 

“There are six men,” Massie told reporters outside the Department of Justice building in Washington. “We went in there for two hours. There’s millions of files, right? And in a couple of hours, we found six men where names have been redacted, who are implicated in the way that the files are presented.”

•••

Fifth of Maxwell – If anyone knows all the redacted Epstein Files names, it must be Ghislaine Maxwell, the late convicted sex offender’s longtime companion serving 20 years herself. And so, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee invited her to tell them what she knows. Maxwell was piped in via video from her prison camp home in Texas where she promptly pleaded the Fifth Amendment, on her attorney, David Oscar Markus’ advice.

According to Markus’ opening statement, obtained by Politico, Maxwell’s attorney reiterated that clemency would facilitate her testimony.

“Only she can provide the complete account,” Markus said. “Some may not like what they hear, but the truth matters.”

If she is provided clemency in her conviction, Maxwell will testify that both President Trump and former President Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing in the Epstein case.

Trump has not ruled out a pardon for Maxwell.

•••

US-Russia Deal = Sellout of Ukraine? – Ukraine’s intelligence services uncovered plans for $12 trillion in business deals between the US and Russia being decided without Ukraine, its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said last weekend. This was being worked out as Russia continues its missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure during a particularly brutal winter. 

The alleged discussions, which fly in the face of calls for crackdowns on Russia’s economy in order to get the Kremlin to discuss a viable peace deal with the US and Ukraine that does not involve handing dictator/President Vladimir Putin more Donbas Oblast land than what his soldiers have not already conquered, are not as surprising as how little press coverage Zelenskyy’s revelations have received. 

One exception is NPR’s Morning Edition, on which Russian economic specialist Pavlo Shkurenko told co-host Leila Fadel; “It’s the Russian team trying to engage the US team not by talking about politics, but by creating some economic incentives for a small circle of business representatives within the US administration to get the transactional side of the American team on board.”

Which seems like it ought to go over well with famously transactional President Trump.

The catch is that Russia’s entire gross domestic product (GDP) was just $2.3 trillion in 2025, according to Shkurenko, who is a specialist with the think tank KSE.

“As of now, the economic situation in Russia is such that there is no money to be made there,” Shkurenko told Fadel. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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TUESDAY 2/10/26

Do Laws Matter to Conservatives? 

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Margaret Brennan on CBS News’ Face the Nation Sunday asked Rep. Tony Gonzalas (R-TX) a question about ICE agents acting without judicial warrants, agents entering private property at will, as well as arresting people. She said people who are against that extra-judicial behavior “just want adherence to Fourth Amendment constitutional protections. As a conservative, shouldn’t a judge be consulted?”

That bears repeating: “As a conservative” — and let’s quote a man who was moderately conservative so as to provide a sense of what conservatives think on the subject of things like adhering to the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution: “The world no longer has a choice between force and law; if civilization is to survive, it must choose the rule of law.” — “shouldn’t a judge be consulted?”

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe during World War II, knew far more than most about force and consequently the importance of law.

Gonzales: “Of course, I believe in the Fourth Amendment. But what worries me is a judge should not hold up everything. We're seeing judges all over the country go beyond their level of authority, and so, if a law enforcement officer, let's just say, for example, sees a crime that's being committed or has due pro- or has due cause, then why can't they go in there. These administrative warrants, they aren't new. All of a sudden, the left is --”

And there you have a prime example of why what has historically been conservativism in America, the belief in the rule of law and the protection of individual liberty, is now meaningless. If judges get in the way of an ICE agent, then that can’t stand.

What he is saying is that if enforcing the Fourth Amendment is inconvenient, then it should be forgotten.

Sure, if an ICE agent happens to be looking through a home’s front window and sees an assault occurring or a giant stack or explosives or something, then certainly there is reasonable cause and no need to wait. But what has been shown to be the case more than once in Minneapolis/St. Paul, are ICE agents entering homes and seizing people without judicial warrants and without apparent crimes being committed. 

(“Oh,” some might object, “if a person is in the country illegally and is in the house, then a crime is being committed by that person being there.” OK. But is there evidence that person is in there? If so, wouldn’t a warrant be in order? “But they might leave before one can be secured.” Yes, but if they were there long enough for it to be known they are there, wouldn’t there have been time to get a warrant beforehand? And if there really is a concern that the person of interest might leave the home, given the number of federal agents on the ground, couldn’t at least a couple of them be assigned to keep watch on the house?)

Brennan brought up the case of the now-famous-for-reasons-he-probably-wishes-never-existed Liam Ramos, the five-year-old who was seized by ICE. Brennan pointed out the little boy and his father “had entered with US government permission through a process that the Biden administration had deemed legal. The current administration does not.” As she put it, Ramos and his father came “in through the front door with US government permission.” They didn’t sneak across the border. They followed the rules.

Gonzales: “Well, the front door was via an app that Biden knew exactly what he was doing, and he created this huge mess, and now President Trump is there to clean up.” 

“In through the front door with the US government permission.”

This has nothing to do with Biden, the favorite scapegoat for everything the Republicans don’t like. Mess or no mess, there was nothing illegal going on. 

With further questioning about the incident, Gonzales went on to say: “So what do you do with all the people that go through the process and do not qualify for asylum? You deport them. I understand the five-year-old and it, you know, it breaks my heart. I have a five-year-old at home. I also think, what about that five-year-old US citizen —”

That’s right. Those who don’t qualify need to leave. 

But when someone is following the procedure and suddenly the procedure changes, do you punish them, as that young child certainly was punished from the standpoint of having been torn away from his family?

Before Gonzales could go on about a “five-year-old US citizen” — and if he was going down the path that Kristi Noem does, something heinous would have happened to that child — Brennan cut him off saying:

“You feel comfortable defending that?”

Gonzales: “I feel comfortable — we have a nation of laws. If we don’t have a nation of laws —”

[What about the aforementioned enforcement of the Fourth Amendment that he apparently thinks isn’t important?]

Brennan: “They were following the- the law that is -- that is that's the reg, is that a new administration deemed the last administration's regulation not to be legal.”

Gonzales: “We can be compassionate, and we can also, we can also enforce our laws. And I think that's the secret sauce that the administration and Congress must do.

“Let's enforce our laws, but let's do it in a humane way.”

So why isn’t that happening? Why isn’t there humane treatment of people, regardless of their immigration status? This is not to say that if someone is committing a violent act that that person should not be stopped from doing so, but as we’ve seen in the cases of Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, humane enforcement is not occurring.

This is how President Trump is cleaning up the mess — by ignoring the rule of law?

There is nothing conservative about armed troops in the streets of America.

If the ends justify the means, and if the means are outside the law, then where do we arrive at the end? Someplace that isn’t America.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

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TUESDAY 2/10/26

About Lion King Trump

Don’t Blame a White House Staffer -- Oh, heaven help us! Of COURSE he posted this. Does it tell anyone, anyone at all, anything they didn't already 100% know about Trump or his supporters? No. Is it close to as blatantly awful as a thousand other things he's posted? No. Every Dem with a microphone or a reporter's ear should say, in a bored voice, "What a jackass," then go back to ICE and affordability. –Hugh Hansen, contributing pundit

•••

Talking With, Not At ...

“Has the Trump economy made life more affordable for Americans?” That’s the Debate & Donuts topic at The Allen Theatre & Salamander Bookstore Café in Annville Township, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, March 11, and you are invited. EMAIL us at editors@thehustings.news for more information and to confirm your attendance. 

Meanwhile, scroll down with the trackbar on the far right to read …

•Left Column – “Can the Dems Find Their Spine?” by Contributing Pundit K.E. Bell.

•Right Column – “Diplomacy and Dollars” by Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay.

Scroll a little bit further to read …

•Right Column – “This is Not a Quiz” by Stephen Macaulay.

•Left Column – “The Killing of Renée Good” by Jerry Lanson.

To read any column to the end, scroll down with the trackbar in each individual column.

We welcome civilly stated comments from across the political spectrum on news/aggregate/analysis and commentary published in The Hustings at editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line so we may post your comments in the proper (right or left) column. --Editors

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WEDNESDAY 2/4/26

…meanwhile…

[NBC News]

Scroll down this column for …

•Democrat Concerned for Midterms

•Roy Cohn Lives

•America's Birthday for Sale

Go to The Gray Area for "Jesus Wept", Stephen Macaulay's commentary on President Trump's National Prayer Breakfast speech

MONDAY 2/9/26

Democrat Concerned for Midterms – Democrats seem to be waking up to the notion that maybe, just maybe, President Trump means it when he says Republicans should take control and hand over voting November 3 to the federal government in “15 places.” 

“I think [Trump] intends to subvert the election,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) told ABC News This Week co-anchor Jonathan Karl Sunday. 

Since suggesting the federal government take over voting a week ago on The Dan Bongino Show Trump has adjusted his remarks to say he supports House Republicans’ SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship and photo identification to vote – each time you vote.

We the people … ICYMI, Article IV of the Constitution gives states full authority to set rules for voting. 

But wait, there’s more: “And if he loses the vote,” Schiff continued on This Week, referring to the possibility that Republicans might lose majorities in the House and Senate, “he’s proposed to take some kind of action to overturn the result, and we really shouldn’t question that.”

•••  

Roy Cohn Lives – If you were one of the few who saw The Apprentice – the 2024 Ali Abbari film about Donald J. Trump’s relationship with Roy Cohn, not the NBC TV show that helped make the future president a household name – you know the first lesson the attorney who gained infamy as chief counsel in the ‘50s to Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) gave Trump: Never apologize or admit wrongdoing, ever.

Trump relied on Lesson 1 when he told reporters on Air Force One last Friday that The Lion King video posted on Truth Social in which the president was depicted as the title character and President and First Lady Obama were depicted as apes (a racist trope so serious it’s hard to type): “I didn’t make a mistake,” NPR’s All Things Considered reports. 

Prior to the Trump White House’s explanation that the video was posted by an aide, who apparently has not been fired, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), only the second Black Republican senator since Sen. Edward Brooke (R-MA) became in 1967 the first Black senator since Reconstruction, said he was “praying it was a mistake.”

When the president claimed it was not his mistake, Scott called the video “the most racist thing” he’s seen out of the Trump administration. 

A few other Republicans, including Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, joined Democrats in criticizing the Trump White House’s use of the video.

But Trump said he is perhaps the least-racist US president to hold the office in a long time.

“We did criminal justice reform,” Trump said. “I did historically Black colleges and universities. I got them funded. Nobody has been – and that’s why I got a tremendous, the highest vote with male Black voters that they’ve seen in many, many decades.”

•••

America’s Birthday for Sale – President Trump is offering one-on-one access and other perquisites to people and businesses who make tax-deductible donations to Freedom 250, the organization Trump set up last December, to throw “the most spectacular birthday party you’ve ever seen,” The New York Times reports Sunday. According to the report, chief fundraiser Meredith O’Rourke is “amassing private donations” by offering “bespoke packages” for donors. 

Instead of say, celebrations of the Boston Tea Party and the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Trump’s plans for the semiquicentennial celebration include an IndyCar race through the capital, a national prayer event and an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) match on the White House lawn for the president’s 80th birthday, June 14, according to the NYT … and, of course, an Arc de Trump over Washington. -- TL

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FRIDAY 2/6/26

UPDATE: Blaming the post on a staffer, the White House has removed the racist altered Lion King post from President Trump’s Truth Social as of Friday afternoon, NPR’s Here & Now reports. Trump’s – or a staffer’s – version of an X-Twitter post from last November had included only the president’s head on the body of the Disney animation’s Lion King character, with the heads of Barack and Michelle Obama attached to the bodies of animated apes, with images removed from the original post that included other prominent Democrats attached to other jungle animals.

Racism in Plain Sight – There have been many examples of President Trump’s “dog whistles” to racists over the years. Overnight Thursday, Trump Truth Socialed a racist 62-second video first posted on X-Twitter last November that depicts his longtime political nemesis, the former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes in a piece riffing on Disney’s The Lion King.

The video depicts Trump as the Lion King, natch, with Democrats including Hilary Clinton, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and former Vice President Kamala Harris as “zebras, giraffes and other animals,” according to The New York Times, as well as the Obamas depicted as apes, repeating a white supremacist trope that goes back to America’s slavery era. 

At the end of the video, the Democratic jungle animals bow to Lion King Trump, according to the report.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt called reaction to the video “fake outrage,” the NYT continues, adding “This is from an internet video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) called the video “disgusting behavior by the president” and said “Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.”

Former Obama administration official Ben Rhodes called Trump “a stain on our history.”

•••

US With Iran in Oman – Iranian negotiators led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi are in Muscat, Oman with Trump administration special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to prevent another conflict between the two countries, The New York Times reports. President Trump has backed off his January threat to attack Iran if the country continues to kill peaceful protesters, and NPR’s Morning Edition reports that the negotiations have commenced with the US and Iranian contingents in separate rooms, with diplomats from the host country shuttling in negotiation points between the two. 

Reports indicate deaths in the tens of thousands from the Iran government’s crackdown on protesters.

Meanwhile an NYT analysis of satellite images indicates Iran has made rapid repairs to its ballistic missile facilities since the US air attack in 2025, but just limited fixes to its major nuclear sites. 

•••

Trump’s Dispensary – Americans now have access to most-favored-nation (MFN) pricing on medications from AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, EMD Serono, Novo Nordisk and Pfizer, by logging on to TrumpRx.gov, the White House has announced. MFN discounts include Ozempic, normally $1,028, available for an average of $350 and as low as $199, and Wegovy list priced at $1,349 for as low as $149. For both drugs the final price is based on dosage prescribed. 

Critics say the discount prices are no better than typical co-pays for such medications as covered by health insurance.

•••

Week on Ice – Homeland Security funding has a week remaining before the extension of its 2025 appropriations expires, or Congress passes a permanent bill or another stopgap. Democrats have released a 10-point plan to reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement including body cameras (which Republicans support), clear identification on standard uniforms and equipment, masks off, and required judicial – not administrative – warrants. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) want to get it done, what with Homeland Security appropriations affecting the Coast Guard, TSA and FEMA as well as the already well-funded ICE.

“We want to make sure that ICE agents are conducting themselves like every other law enforcement agency in the country,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told Morning Edition.

•••

Russian General Shot – Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev, whose superior in the Russian army has been actively involved in futile peace talks with Ukraine in recent weeks, was shot “multiple times” in the back while in Moscow, The Wall Street Journal reports. The attacker fled the scene. 

Alekseyev has served Russia’s GRU intelligence agency since 2011 and has been accused by Western officials of conducting assassination attempts and sabotage attacks abroad. State-run RT television reports that Alekseyev was in critical condition. –TL

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THURSDAY 2/5/26

‘Softer Touch’ – President Trump is looking to expand his immigration crackdown into five more cities, though he wants Homeland Security forces to be ‘invited’, he told NBC News in a preview of the traditional Super Bowl Sunday interview this weekend. 

“We have five cities that we’re looking at strongly, but we want to be invited,” Trump told NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas (above) in the preview broadcast Wednesday. 

Trump did not name the five cities, though Atlanta, Philadelphia and Detroit have been mentioned as three potential solid-blue targets in recent weeks. 

“I learned that maybe we can use a little bit of a softer touch, but you still have to be tough,” Trump told Llamas. “We’re dealing with really hard criminals.”

“Operation Metro Surge” in the Twin Cities, along with other immigration crackdowns in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere have led to a series of lawsuits against the administration for violating both legal and undocumented immigrants. 

Meanwhile, Trump said the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis were “very sad to me,” but …

“He was not an angel and she was not an angel,” Trump continued. … “I think they were both sad. And you know who feels worse about it than anybody? The people of ICE.”

•••

Poll: Trump, ICE Disapproval – Latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll released on Morning Edition Thursday finds 65% of Americans say Immigration and Customs Enforcement has “gone too far,” and President Trump has his highest intensity of disapproval since just after the January 6th, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

That 65% who say ICE has gone too far in enforcing immigration laws represents an 11-point increase since last summer, NPR’s Domenico Montanaro reports. Both independent and Democratic voters’ disapproval was up by double-digits.

Meanwhile… Trump’s overall favorable rating is 39%, with a disapproval rating of 56%, while 51% say they strongly disapprove of the job he is doing. That represents the highest “strong” number since Marist began tracking “strongly” approve or disapprove in 2017, Montanaro said. --TL

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WEDNESDAY 2/4/26

Only 2,300 Remain – In his second press conference Wednesday since taking over Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities nearly a week earlier, Trump administration border czar Tom Homan announced about 700 federal law enforcement personnel of about 3,000 – about four times the size of Minneapolis’ police force -- will leave immediately, The Hill reports. The crackdown on immigrants and those suspected of being immigrants will not ramp down, however.

“If you are in the country illegally, you are not off the table. Let me be clear: President Trump fully intends to achieve mass deportation during his administration, and immigration enforcement actions will continue every day throughout this country.”

•••

Spending Package Passes – The House approved a $1 trillion-plus spending package to reopen a portion of the federal government that shut down last Saturday. The vote was 217-214, according to NPR’s All Things Considered and includes a stopgap package for Homeland Security that’s good to February 13.

Five other appropriations bills included in the vote fund – Defense-HHS-Education, Financial Services, National Security-State and Transportation-HUD are good to the end of the fiscal year, September 30. 

Now what? … On the face of it, Senate Democrats would seem to have the advantage in negotiations over reforms for Immigration and Customs Enforcement as they could hold up Homeland Security spending via filibuster if they don’t get ICE and border patrol body cameras, ID badges and the removal of masks plus judicial warrants only – no administrative warrants.

However … Republicans are in agreement with Democrats about body cameras and they could let the Homeland Security shut down again, as ICE was well-funded by President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, but TSA, for example, was not. 

What’s more, there’s talk of Republicans killing the filibuster – though Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is opposed – that could include forcing a “standing filibuster” by Democrats and invoking Rule 19.

•••

Sucking Sound in St. Paul – Justice Department attorney Julie Le expressed frustration about the downstream effects of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities by telling a federal judge the “system sucks” and “this job sucks,” The Wall Street Journal reports. 

Le’s response came when Judge Jerry Blackwell in St. Paul pressed her about why the Trump administration was not complying with court orders to release detained migrants in Minnesota, according to two people who attended the hearing. Le also tried to get the judge to hold her in contempt so she could get 24 hours sleep. The hearing was brought to court by immigrants challenging the lawfulness of their detentions in five separate cases. 

The WSJ credited Fox 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul with first reporting on the court hearing.

•••

Trilateral Peace Talks in Abu Dhabi – The US, Russia and Ukraine have begun their second round of trilateral peace talks in Abu Dhabi, led by Trump administration son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff, The Kyiv Independentreports. 

But are they trilateral, really? 

The two-day talks begin a day after Russia staged its most massive strike this winter on Ukraine, launching 71 missiles and 450 drones overnight Tuesday, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

This re-escalation of Russia’s assault on Ukraine’s power grid has led many to question the Kremlin’s seriousness about reaching a peace deal, according to the Independent. – Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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WEDNESDAY 2/4/26

How to Beggar Belief

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Todd Blanche is one of those guys who is something until he is something else.

Like a Democrat in New York in 2023 until he got a house in Palm Beach County, Florida, where Mar-a-Lago is located, and became a Republican in 2024. That change of affiliation probably had more than a little something to do with the premier client that his fairly fresh law firm, Blanche Law (est. 2023), represented in criminal court in New York in 2024, none other than then-citizen Donald Trump.

Unfortunately for said client, he was convicted in state court of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Those, incidentally, are felonies.

And it is worth pointing out that this is the case related to records being falsified so Trump could make a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, through Michael Cohen, before the 2016 election. That way his association with the actress known for work including The Witches of Breastwick and Erotic Sins of My Neighbor wouldn’t be made public.

Despite the loss in court — and, of course, there are appeals, but even should those appeals prove there were some procedural errors such that the verdict is thrown out, as Mitt Romney noted: “You don’t pay someone $130,000 not to have sex with you,” so that aspect will never go away (curious how this incident is overlooked by, especially, the evangelical Christian women who undoubtedly know the Seventh Commandment) — Blanche got a job in the Trump Administration as the US deputy attorney general.

It is worth knowing that Blanche is not some kind of lightweight like others who have apparently been put on Team Trump because they (or their spouses) are telegenic, not because they actually have the appropriate skillset. Blanche spent some time working as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, not the sort of place where a lightweight gets a desk.

But it seems that Blanche has become something of sock puppet for the man who gave him his present job.

Appearing on ABC News’ This Week with George Stephanopoulos — not “Slopadopolis,” as the leader of the free world likes to put it, with a level of sophistication that make kindergarteners envious — Blanche was asked by Stephanopoulos about his confirmation hearing testimony, when he committed to not participating in partisan political investigations.

Stephanopoulos went on: “Since then, as you know, a number of targets of President Trump, have been publicly targeted by President Trump, have been prosecuted or investigated. …  It includes the former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, the Fed Chair Jerome Powell, Senators Adam Schiff, Mark Kelly, and Elissa Slotkin, Governor Tim Walz, and Mayor Jacob Frey.

“So, how do you respond to those who say you've broken your commitment?”

Blanche’s opening response is classic: “You just showed a handful of investigations or grand jury indictments that have been brought. We are -- we are investigating tens of thousands of individuals and cases every single day. They are not political in base. The fact that you cherry-picked a handful that some people in the media have said, ‘Oh, those must be political,’ is absurd and not fair.”

Of course the Department of Justice is “investigating tens of thousands of individuals and cases every single day.” But tens of thousands of those individuals haven’t had various attacks on them on social media or in public statements by the president of the United States.

Blanche’s answer continued: “I mean, don't forget, George, when I walk into the Oval Office right now, I look around. And oftentimes every single person in that room was heavily attacked and gone after by the last Biden administration. And so, when I said to Congress and when I say to you right now that what we're -- there's not a whiff of political partisanship in what we're doing, I mean that. The mere fact that some Democrats, or some individuals who have spoken out against President Trump are being investigated is because there -- that's what the Department of Justice does. It doesn't make it political because we're investigating.”

Oh, that’s right, there were people in the White House who were “heavily attacked and gone after by the last Biden administration.” So if Biden did that, then “there’s not a whiff of political partisanship in what we’re doing”? Really? Then why bring up the Biden administration?

And are those people named just “some Democrats, or some individuals who have spoken out against President Trump”? The Fed chair is just some guy? The attorney general of New York is just some woman?

And when did speaking out against the president become a reason for a Justice Department investigation?

Well, it does now.

Stephanopoulos: “Those indictments of James Comey and Letitia James came after the president explicitly said they're guilty as hell and justice must be served right now. They came after career attorneys refused to bring the indictments, and both cases have been dismissed.”

Stephanopoulos actually truncated the list as the post that Donald Trump put on his social media site is: "Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam 'Shifty' Schiff, Leticia??? They're all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!"

And the marching orders are clearly revealed:

Blanche: “I mean, when you -- I don't know what it means to say they’ve come after people. I mean, listen, if you're a prosecutor in the Department of Justice, you are expected to effectuate this administration's priorities, like every single prosecutor in every administration. There are some prosecutors within the department who have chosen to leave. They don't want to do that. That is their right. That is fine. But if you're going to work in this department, you are going to execute on the president's priorities, and that's what we do.”

While organizationally the Department of Justice is part of the executive branch, historically it has been an independent organization, not a 115,000-member law firm directed by the president.

In fact, on the DoJ’s website, under “Our Values,” the first item is this:

“Independence and Impartiality. We work each day to earn the public’s trust by following the facts and the law wherever they may lead, without prejudice or improper influence.”

Isn’t “They're all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!" prejudicial by its very definition?

And Blanche must remember those Due Process Clauses in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments — the bit about being innocent before being proven guilty.

Stephanopoulos, picking up on the “execute on the president’s priorities,” said: “Well, you just -- you just actually made my point right there. You said it's the president's priorities. The president calls for them publicly to be prosecuted, says they're guilty as hell, and then they're prosecuted.”

The response to this?

Blanche: “Now that's not the president's priorities. That's a truth that he sent out. The president's priorities are executing on making America safe again. And that's what we're doing.”

(Lest you be confused, the “truth” is what is otherwise considered a “tweet” unless it appears on the president’s platform.)

How are we made “safe” by investigating the former head of the FBI?

Blanche insisted: “under no circumstances do we turn to a prosecutor and say you need to go after somebody because they are politically one way or another. We have never done that, and we won't do that.”

Does anyone — including Blanche — believe that?

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

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WEDNESDAY 2/4/26