Trump team feeling 'a little bit of anxiety' heading into Iowa vote: Morning Joe panelist

ALSO READ: 'Leave us the hell alone!' Dem bigwigs warned of catastrophe if they swarm into Maine

Donald Trump is widely expected to win the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus, but possibly not by as much as his campaign team had expected.

The expected margin of victory has thinned a bit heading into Monday's Republican primary vote, and MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire noted the situation has caused some internal anxiety among Trump allies.

"I think we've seen a little bit of anxiety from Trump folks in the last few days because they were so boldly, confidently predicting this blowout," Lemire told "Morning Joe." "Polls suggest he'll win by a sizable margin but maybe not by the number they had put out there, as you say, over 50 percent. There's a couple of reasons for that. One would be, of course, the weather ... there is concerns that people are going to stay home tonight because it'll be dangerous to be outside – legitimate reasons to stay home."

READ MORE: An Iowa obituary for Ron DeSantis’ presidential dreams

"Trump, for the first time all campaign, the last 24, 36 hours, went on the attack against Vivek Ramaswamy, of all people," Lemire added. "Ramaswamy has been supportive of Trump throughout his campaign. He's never criticized him, but the Trump people have really turned on him in recent days because Ramaswamy is still sticking in the 7 percent, 8 percent, 9 percent. His people who are for him are really for him, there's a lot of enthusiasm. Trump is trying to bang those people down, trying to switch them over to him for his margins. DeSantis' people think they have the best ground game. What that means for a campaign that seems to be half dead, we'll see, but some think he'll have a better than expected number because his team is motivated and organized to get people to caucus sites despite the bad weather. Yes, all eyes will be on the number that [Nikki] Haley comes up with."

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Gianni Infantino could be ousted following his call with Trump

FIFA President Gianni Infantino faces mounting pressure to resign after overturning a red card for US striker Folarin Balogun following President Donald Trump's personal intervention.

Trump contacted Infantino requesting a review of the suspension, which FIFA's Disciplinary Committee subsequently reversed two days before US's match against Belgium, despite claiming to act independently, reports Keith Rathbone for The Conversation.

The decision produced questions about Infantino's close relationship with Trump, who awarded him the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize in December 2025.

The scandal prompted calls for resignation from Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling, German manager Jürgen Klopp, and former England captain Gary Lineker.

"UEFA officials have reportedly been discussing possible alternatives to Infantino," writes Rathbone.

European lawmakers demanded an investigation.

However, Infantino, who became FIFA president as an anti-corruption reform candidate in 2016, has become increasingly authoritarian and less transparent.

He maintains strong support from African and Asian confederations and appears positioned to secure an unprecedented fourth term.

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GOP Senate surrogate quits fast after reporters ask about his jail time over a 15-year-old

A GOP Senate campaign's volunteer county chair resigned after reporters brought to light his criminal history involving a minor, per NBC News.

A spokesperson for the campaign of Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) told NBC News that Andrew Havas "did not disclose" that he had been accused of sexual misconduct with a minor. According to reporting by NBC News, the campaign accepted Havas' resignation after the accusation came to light.

Havas had been serving as a county campaign chair in Franklin County for Husted since December, and he resigned after NBC News reached out to Husted's campaign for comment, the outlet reported.

According to NBC News, Havas pleaded guilty in 2009 in a case related to an incident involving a 15-year-old in Ohio's Mahoning County. Havas was 22 years old at the time and was sentenced to 90 days in jail, ordered to pay a fine, and to have no contact with the minor, according to court records obtained by NBC News.

A criminal complaint from 2008 accused Havas of "being reckless" with regard to the victim's age and of knowing that the minor was older than 13 but younger than 16, NBC News reported.

Havas' charges were reduced from sexual misconduct with a minor to one misdemeanor assault charge, according to a case file reviewed by NBC News. He served his jail time in Mahoning County from May to August 2009, according to county sheriff's office records obtained by NBC News.

"Mr. Havas did not disclose his history to the campaign," a spokesperson for Husted's campaign told NBC News. "Upon learning the facts, we immediately accepted his resignation as a campaign volunteer."

Havas introduced Husted at a Christmas party in December and shook his hand before giving the GOP senator the microphone, according to NBC News, which noted that Havas did not respond to its requests for comment.

Trump weighed national emergency to bypass election agency before firing leaders: report

The Trump administration plotted ways to bypass an election agency before firing its leaders, according to reporting by Reuters.

According to four anonymous sources who spoke to Reuters, the White House "spent months" mulling ways around Election Assistance Commission guidelines for state voting machines. Earlier this week, Trump fired two Democratic members of the commission and allowed its lone Republican commissioner to resign just months before the midterms.

Some Trump White House officials wanted the EAC to add a proof-of-citizenship requirement for the national mail voter registration form. Others, as far back as last fall, considered whether to declare a national emergency, according to Reuters.

The idea of declaring a national emergency came from a recommendation by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The emergency declaration would be followed by the creation of a federal task force that would compel states to address vulnerabilities in their voting systems, sources told Reuters.

Reuters noted that the report with those recommendations was never published, and the ODNI did not respond to a request for comment. However, two sources told Reuters that complaints about the commission continued since those recommendations came up last fall.

Officials from the Department of Homeland Security, ODNI, and the White House also met with EAC leaders around the same time to discuss flaws in voting machines that they believed "could have contributed to abnormalities in 2020," sources told Reuters.

According to Reuters, the Trump administration has not made it immediately clear why it ousted the last remaining heads of the EAC, but Reuters' sources say that the administration was "frustrated" with how slowly the commissioners were updating voting machine guidelines.

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