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The Washington National Opera's defiant break from the Kennedy Center is paying immediate dividends, with its latest show "Treemonisha" drawing sold-out crowds this weekend at the Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University.

The production marks the company's first show since severing its 55-year affiliation with the Kennedy Center in January, a split that came amid pressure from Trump-appointed Kennedy Center Executive Director Richard Grenell over operational control, concerns about donor confidence and collapsing ticket sales since the Trump takeover.

Announcing the departure in January, Artistic Director Francesca Zambello admitted she was "deeply saddened to leave the Kennedy Center," and warned in November that Trump administration policies had "shattered" donor confidence and triggered a 40 percent drop in ticket revenues.

Reception to the first post-Kennedy Center production was rapturous with General Director Timothy O'Leary and Zambello receiving more than a two-minute standing ovation when they took the stage to welcome audiences.

"It's been a really exciting, inspiring kind of groundswell of support," O'Leary said, describing the overwhelming response since the opera announced its independence. "As soon as we announced that we were producing the rest of our season at new venues, we heard overwhelmingly, not only from our audience, people saying, 'I wasn't coming but now I'm coming, absolutely. I'm coming twice.' We also heard from people who wrote in and said, 'I don't even like opera, but I'll come and attend any performance you give anywhere.'"

The return to Lisner Auditorium—where the company was founded in 1956—has taken on symbolic significance. O'Leary framed the move as a homecoming rooted in American civil society values.

"Thank you for believing in the idea of American civil society, whereby institutions that are mission-based like this are created and nurtured by we the people," O'Leary said in a Facebook video. "We've been feeling this incredible surge of enthusiasm and support from not only our usual but people from around the country."

Looking ahead, the opera will present "The Crucible" from March 21 through March 29, followed by two performances of "West Side Story" at The Lyric in Baltimore and Strathmore in North Bethesda to commemorate America's 250th anniversary.

Nearly three dozen Republican lawmakers are fleeing the House — the most in almost a century – and Democrats are feeling bullish about their chances of winning back a majority.

Rep. Darell Issa (R-CA) became the 35th Republican to announce they will not seek re-election in November, the most GOP retirements since at least 1930 and already one more than the 34 Republicans who left the House during Donald Trump's first term in 2018, reported Rolling Stone.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) scolded his Republican colleague, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), after he attacked Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) without giving him a chance to respond.

During a Tuesday Senate Banking Committee hearing on sanctuary cities, Moreno mocked the Democratic witnesses after they declined to approve of a law that obstructed legal immigration.

President Donald Trump has suddenly grown interested in his former campaign manager's role in steering government contracts.

The 79-year-old president has been peppering aides with questions in recent days about longtime adviser Corey Lewandowski, who had been acting as de facto chief of staff to recently fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and his involvement in a controversial $220 million advertising campaign, reported NBC News.

As Republicans’ midterm election prospects grow increasingly bleak, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) delivered a unique pitch to voters Tuesday while speaking at a Florida resort owned by President Donald Trump — a pitch that labeled voters who don’t support GOP candidates this November as “foolish.”

A new NBC News poll released Monday revealed that Democrats are well-positioned to take back control of the House this November, with some Republicans now fearing they may also lose control of the Senate. Even a prominent Republican – Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) – predicted that the upcoming midterms would be “disastrous” for the GOP.

President Donald Trump pledged over the weekend to veto all legislation until Congress passes his voter-requirements bill, the SAVE Act — and, in doing so, may have set off a chain of events that could compel Senate Republicans to overturn a 220-year rule and grant themselves unprecedented power, one congressional scholar warned Tuesday.

Top Republicans have grown increasingly fearful that their party may end up losing control of the Senate in the midterm elections this November. And, with Trump now vowing to block all bills until the passage of the SAVE Act, Senate Republicans, according to congressional scholar Norm Ornstein, might eliminate the filibuster out of desperation to “save their own skins.”

Two Florida Donald Trump voters expressed their dismay at exploding gas prices on MS NOW on Tuesday morning, with one grudgingly admitting he misses President Joe Biden — and that he is now broke.

As part of a report with host Anna Cabrera on the economic impact of Trump’s war on Iran, with oil prices going through the roof, MS NOW’s Alex Tabet spoke with the two men at a filling station in Lantana, Florida.

Pro-MAGA morning hosts David Brody, Gina Loudon, and Terrence Bates expressed full-throated support for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's "religious war" in Iran after he quoted scripture to support the U.S. strikes.

"Religious war! It's on!" Brody exclaimed during a Real America's Voice segment following Hegseth's Tuesday briefing. "I'm telling you that's happening. We've always looked at this from a Judeo-Christian standpoint, as relates to spiritual warfare. We know that God is richly blessed America."