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Financial Times columnist Ed Luce identified a problematic moment from Trump's State of the Union address that will concern his White House team as poll numbers decline. Appearing on "Morning Joe," Luce agreed the speech was boring but highlighted Trump's dismissive treatment of affordability as damaging. Luce criticized Trump for treating the word as if Democrats invented it and the issue wasn't serious. He suggested Trump's campaign manager Susie Wiles and others were "gnashing their teeth" watching the address, which was supposed to position Republicans as serious on affordability for the midterms. Instead, Trump told Americans prices are falling and claimed drug prices dropped 100 percent, meaning they're now zero. Luce concluded that while audiences have grown accustomed to Trump's lies, the sheer volume and absurdity have become tedious rather than persuasive.

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A Democratic mayor squared off against a MAGA pundit on Wednesday over her "racist' defense of President Donald Trump's State of the Union address.

Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, and Natalie Winters, co-host of Steve Bannon's podcast, "The War Room," got into a heated shouting match on the latest episode of "Piers Morgan Uncensored" after Winters claimed that Democrats support illegal immigration because they want to lower wages for American workers. She also claimed that immigrants are "destroying" American culture.

A high-profile MAGA influencer account on X with hundreds of thousands of followers has been exposed as being secretly run by White House staffer. According to Wired, Johnny MAGA appeared to be an independent voice amplifying Trump's Truth Social posts and attacking Democrats like Gov. Gavin Newsom. The account pushed misleading claims about flag-burning demonstrations and the killing of Renee Good. Created in January 2021, Johnny MAGA actively targeted former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 election. Wired identified Garrett Wade, who works as a rapid response manager for the Trump administration, through phone records and confirmed the connection with a White House source. Wade did not respond to Wired's request for comment. The discovery illustrates the use of "sock puppet" accounts to artificially amplify support, a practice with historical precedent including Fox News and Sen. Mike Lee's accounts.

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Vice President JD Vance announced on Wednesday that the Trump administration will shut off certain types of Medicaid payments to the state of Minnesota for the time being.

"We're announcing today that we have decided to temporarily, temporarily halt certain amounts of Medicaid funding that are going to the state of Minnesota in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligations seriously to be good stewards of the American people's tax money," said Vance, standing beside Medicare and Medicaid administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz.

FBI Director Kash Patel's taxpayer-funded trip to Italy for the Olympics included extensive "personal and leisure time," according to an internal schedule leaked to The New York Times. Patel defended the trip, stating it focused on "strengthening joint counterterrorism coordination" with European allies. However, the leaked schedule revealed long segments designated for "personal time" and "cultural activities." On one Saturday, Patel had only a 20-minute briefing with Olympic security, a brief tour, and a private lunch with an unlisted guest, followed by hours of personal time and a private dinner with unspecified companions. The FBI condemned the schedule leak as a "criminal act." Patel faces ongoing scrutiny for misusing public resources, including allegedly using FBI jets for personal travel and delaying agency response to Brown University's mass shooting. Sen. Richard Durbin characterized Patel's conduct as "irresponsible joyriding" at taxpayer expense.

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President Donald Trump has been gearing up to interfere in the 2026 midterm elections — but he could hit a brick wall, Jim Saksa wrote for the liberal voting rights news outlet Democracy Docket, because of the ineptitude of his own legal team.

"With Trump’s poll numbers at record lows, democracy advocates and Democrats are preparing for the White House to use a range of tactics to prevent a fair election — from sending federal law enforcement to the polls to seize mail ballots, to declaring a state of emergency to allow for a full takeover of the voting process," said the report. "These nightmare scenarios can’t be ruled out and pose a clear threat to U.S. democracy. But experts say it’s more likely — all but certain, in fact — that Trump will use the DOJ to try to rehash the same kind of legal challenges he made in 2020, which led to more than 60 courtroom losses."

A MAGA Republican in Colorado received a brutal fact-check on Wednesday over a claim he made about human trafficking in the state.

Scott Bottoms, a Republican candidate for Colorado Governor, said during an interview on a local conservative radio show called "The Jeff and Bill Show" that he has called about 20 nonprofits in the state to get help investigating an alleged human trafficking ring being run out of the state capitol. Bottoms also claimed that the organizations refused to help him, even though he had "pretty good evidence," and said that some of them had tried to shake him down for a six-figure payment before they investigated.

Representative Lauren Underwood became the second Democrat to walk out of the State of the Union Address, as reported by Annie Karni of The New York Times. The Illinois Representative left as President Donald Trump outlined various policies he wants to see Congress pass. Her departure came after Representative Al Green's (D-TX) dramatic exit, after multiple Republicans tried to seize his sign saying "BLACK PEOPLE AREN'T APES." Green was protesting against a racist post Trump promoted on his Truth Social platform earlier this month.

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Olympic hockey gold medalist Jeremy Swayman said he regretted laughing after President Donald Trump joked about possibly not inviting the women's hockey champions to the White House.

Following their gold-medal victory over Canada this week, Trump spoke by phone with the men's team.