Tom Boggioni

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s antics while sitting behind Donald Trump during the president’s State of the Union speech were raked over the coals on MS NOW on Wednesday morning.

During a review of the president's rambling and abrasive speech, it was noted that the president insisted, once again, he doesn’t need congressional approval for anything he does.

"Interesting that, as he said, I don't need Congress to do tariffs. I'll do it on my own, the speaker of the house, Mike Johnson, leapt to his feet in applause to support the idea that the president of the United States does not need Congress, perhaps not just on tariffs, but on anything anymore," co-host Wille Geist reported.

Co-host Joe Scarborough could be heard saying “Auggh,” off camera before interjecting, “Yeah, Mike Johnson getting weaker by the day.”

“It's it's like the final Harry Potter; he just kind of keeps shriveling up,” he joked. “It's getting sadder and sadder if you listen to the words that he said. I will say it's very interesting.”

Scarborough also noted the look on Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s face as Trump spoke, and suggested, “I thought, that's a woman I probably wouldn't cross.”

- YouTube youtu.be

Donald Trump opened himself up to more scrutiny and future investigations when he singled out former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for financial improprieties during his State of the Union address.

According to the hosts of MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” inquiries into deal-making by lawmakers is not a subject the president should be touching upon considering his well-documented billion dollar cash grab since he was re-elected.

According to co-host Joe Scarborough, the president’s comments may come back to haunt him.

With the president calling for a ban on congressional insider trading, he singled out Pelosi in the room, asking where she was and if she was standing up and applauding.

That led Scarborough to exclaim, “It's just like the hypocrisy is crazy, just crazy,” with co-host Mika Brzezinski adding, “Really interesting State of the Union tonight.”

“Why would you even bring that up if you know that you're pocketing like close to $2 billion since you've been president?” Scarborough continued.

“Well, he brought a lot of things up that seemed like projection,” Brzezinski interjected. “Seemed self-defeating to me. And you should just focus on getting legislation done that would build out your legacy for good,” Scarborough added.

- YouTube youtu.be

According to Financial Times columnist Ed Luce, there was one moment during Donald Trump’s long and lie-filled State of the Union address that will cause his White House no small measure of problems as the president’s poll numbers are in freefall.

Appearing on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,“ the longtime journalist agreed with co-host Jonathan Lemire that Trump’s speech was “boring” but added that Trump’s comments about affordability was not what his inner circle wanted to hear coming out of his mouth.

“I don't think, you know, this is effective campaigning, although it is campaigning, was him rolling the word affordability around in his mouth, as if it's some very strange word that the Democrats have just learned, and that it isn't really a serious issue at all," he suggested to Lemire.

“I imagine Susie Wiles and others were gnashing their teeth as they watched that, because this was clearly supposed to be, at least in part, a speech that set up Republicans for the midterms as serious on questions of affordability,” he added. “And he didn't really do that. He told Americans that their prices are all falling. Don't believe your own lying eyes, etc. He at one point said that drug prices have dropped 100 percent, which would mean they're now zero.”

“So you know, I can't I can't get excited about this speech. But I'm and I guess the fact that we're so used to these torrents of lies and the whoppingness of these lies and that it's actually boring, does say something about us and about this president,” he wryly admitted.

- YouTube youtu.be

Donald Trump's record-long State of the Union address got about as low of marks as possible from MS NOW’s Jonathan Lemire who claimed he couldn’t see it changing one person’s mind about the president’s disastrous second term -- according to recent polls.

Worse still, he added, the entire speech was a boring drag.

With the entire “Morning Joe” panel pouncing on Trump’s “serial lying,” Lemire claimed he heard nothing that he didn’t hear from the president’s rambling, almost daily, Oval Office appearances.

After observing, “Last night was President Trump's biggest audience he will see all year, a national audience. Millions of people watched and he came into last night reeling,” he added, “I can't imagine he changed a single mind last night. I can't imagine he won over a single voter last night and that's bad for the Republicans who will be on the ballot this November who have to defend his policies.”

“And I was also just struck, frankly, it's pretty boring,” he reported. “Yes, it had a couple nice moments of patriotism; he saluted the men's [Olympic] hockey team. He singled out a few Americans who deserve to be recognized for their heroism at home or abroad. But it felt like a campaign speech. It felt like more of the same.”

“Like, yes, he was loud. Yes, he, you know, was animated. I don't know, though that it's going to change the trajectory of his presidency one bit,” he predicted.

- YouTube youtu.be

Using a Tuesday morning report from NPR that Department of Justice appears to have disappeared documents from the Jeffrey Epstein files, MS NOW’s Lisa Rubin zeroed in on one of the most alarming revelations.

According to Rubin, three missing interviews could add more fuel to the fire surrounding Donald Trump, making it appear he was far from a passive friend of the convicted sex trafficker.

NPR reported, “Files scrubbed from public view pertain to a separate woman who was a key witness for the prosecution in the criminal trial of Epstein's co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking. Maxwell is seeking clemency from Trump.”

That led Rubin to tell host Anna Cabrera that missing interviews reportedly showed that an unnamed woman said she was sexually abused by Trump as well as being “hit” by him, and that the one that was released by the DOJ contained nothing that would implicate the president.

Holding up a witness list provided by the DOJ, she said, “So you see in the files, you see evidence that this woman spoke to the FBI four times between July and, I believe, October or November of 2019, four separate interviews, and then they abruptly stop.”

“And we don't know why, because it's the latter three interviews that we're missing,” she continued. “And yet we have this internal FBI correspondence produced by the Department of Justice, where they say that a single accuser against Donald Trump refused to continue cooperating with the FBI. Is that, in fact, this woman? We can't say for sure.”

“But that is one possible conclusion that you could draw that they didn't deem her to be not credible. It's that at some point she stopped cooperating and wanting to be a witness in this proceeding,” she added.

MS NOW legal analyst Catherine Christian noted the accusations came in 2019 and, ‘Who's more high profile than the president of the United States, if this is when she was interviewed? And, you know, even if they're not high profile, as you said, sexual assault victims, they are fearful of coming forward. They don't want to be judged. They frequently are judged, even by friends and family. So you can just imagine the heightened fear if the person you're accusing of doing this is someone who's very high profile.”

- YouTube youtu.be

As President Donald Trump's approval ratings swiftly spiral downward, his fundraising appeals have become increasingly desperate, with messaging that veers toward implicit threats against supporters who fail to contribute financially.

According to Salon analyst Chauncey DeVega, Trump seeks both financial contributions and personal affirmation that his MAGA base remains loyal as his broader support erodes.

A recent fundraising email employed veiled intimidation, referencing ICE enforcement. DeVega noted the message warned, "Does ICE need to come and track you down?"

DeVega wrote, "The president’s recent fundraising emails are part of a larger messaging campaign that has become increasingly menacing — even by Trump’s standards.

"Like an obsessed former lover, the president has been telling his MAGA voters that he loves them but is hurt because they appear to be ignoring him. He is wounded that they don't answer his multiple emails or pick up the phone when he calls. Trump's emails also ask his supporters if they are avoiding him or if they have blocked his number."

While the messaging could reflect Trump's psychological state, DeVega cautioned it reveals his continued influence over his base. "They should instead be taken seriously as an example of the power he still exerts over his MAGA base, and how he won the hearts and minds of tens of millions of Americans in the first place—factors that have long proven a competitive advantage that Democrats have struggled to overcome in recent presidential elections."

Political psychologist Steven Ducat described the dynamic as cult-like. "The leader is both the source of fear and the protector against it, it generates what social psychologist and cult researcher Alexandra Stein and others have called a trauma bond."

DeVega explained that Trump's fundraising strategy targets specific psychological profiles within his base. "As the president's support among the American people continues to crater, he will seek to exert even more control over his base. They, in turn, will likely feel even more compelled toward Trump, whom many view as their Dear Leader and personal savior, a dynamic common to political and other forms of personality cults."

You can read more here.

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, occupies a unique position following a 6-3 decision against the president on tariffs, according to Harvard Law School professor Richard J. Lazarus.

Lazarus argued in a Washington Post column that Kavanaugh should use his current favor with Trump to defend the Court's institutional integrity after the president attacked his colleagues.

Following the ruling, Trump posted on Truth Social, "My new hero is United States Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and, of course, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that they want to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Trump likely singled out Kavanaugh for his dissenting opinion, in which the conservative justice agreed that refunding tariff revenue would create a "mess' for the Trump administration. Thomas and Alito were also in the minority in the ruling.

Trump subsequently attacked other justices, calling them "fools and lapdogs," "a disgrace to our nation," "unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution," "swayed by foreign interests," and "slimeballs."

Lazarus suggested Kavanaugh issue a formal statement defending the Court. "Kavanaugh should consider seizing this historic moment by issuing a formal statement supporting the court, the integrity of his colleagues and the legitimacy of the court's rulings, even those with which he disagrees."

Lazarus employed a bullying analogy to explain why Kavanaugh's intervention matters. "It is when those in the bully's presumed community make clear their objection and distance themselves that the bully is rendered powerless. This is no less true for the president's bully pulpit."

Lazarus concluded, "Kavanaugh can meet his moment in history by affirming that his overriding allegiance lies with his colleagues on the court and in their shared mission to work together to promote the rule of law."

Of all the legal problems Donald Trump faced, from accusations of sexual assault to business fraud, he most feared the Florida stolen government documents investigation by special counsel Jack Smith that ended up being dropped when he won re-election.

That is according to “Morning Joe” co-host Jonathan Lemire, who reported on the president’s terror at being convicted during a discussion on U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon's Monday ruling that permanently blocked the Justice Department from releasing Smith’s final report.

With MS NOW legal analyst Lisa Rubin once again saying “all bets” would be off if the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decides to intervene, Lemire pointed out that Trump knew he was fortunate that his appointee covered up for him.

After noting there was considerable second-guessing going on after Smith elected to pursue the case in Florida, which led to Cannon’s courtroom, Lemire reported, ”Judge Cannon ended up putting a thumb on the scale significantly for Trump down the line. And you're right, Joe [Scarborough], we've talked about it on this show, Trump has privately told people, you know, more or less that he [Smith] was dead to rights on that one.”

“That was the case, the classified documents case that he feared the most,” he added. “And I know there will be second-guessing for all time in terms of the sequencing of those cases. The one in Manhattan went first, got a conviction, but it seemed to many to be the least serious, and we will never know if things had gone quicker or if the order was changed, what would have happened.“

“But you're right, Cannon, certainly at every opportunity, seems to be deferential to Trump and Trump's wishes,” he added.

- YouTube youtu.be

As Donald Trump prepares to give his State of the Union speech, he will do it under a cloud of record-low approval numbers that he seemingly refuses to acknowledge — and that has Republicans living in fear.

But the president doesn’t care, reported Axios's founder Jim VandeHei on MS NOW just hours before the national address.

Appearing on “Morning Joe,” VandeHei told the hosts that the president has convinced himself that he is doing a great job and will try and make that case in his speech, regardless of the sour mood in the country.

With co-host Jonathan Lemire claiming that it appears inevitable that Republicans will lose control of the House and that Democrats plan to make Trump’s life “miserable” after assuming power, VandeHei said things are far worse for Trump and Republicans than the polls show.

“You guys have painted a pretty bleak picture,” the Axios founder told the hosts. “For Republicans, I actually think it's worse than what you painted, because it's not just that he's losing independents. It's not just that he's underwater in terms of his popularity, it's that you see a massive gap in the enthusiasm among Democrats, which is high, and Republicans, which is low.”

“So he's losing independents,” he elaborated. “He has an unmotivated Republican Party and a highly motivated Democratic Party. If you look at all of the local and state races over the last couple of months, Democrats are routinely outperforming their performance two years ago. That is a bad, bad sign.”

“I can't find a single Republican I talked to that doesn't think they're not going to get clobbered in November, that maybe even the Senate, which looked like it wasn't in play, could be in play,” he reported. “And here's the thing: Trump does not seem to care.

"When I talk to his aides, when I talk to Republicans who are going in there, they're like, ‘Please, please, please stop talking about tariffs. Stop talking about Venezuela, stop talking about Greenland. Please talk about affordability. We've got to win the House. We've got to win the Senate.’ And nothing! He just does not care. I think he thinks he's killing it. And I think you're going to see that in the State of the Union where he's going to say we're crushing it.”

- YouTube youtu.be

Count current and former FBI officials among those who were appalled watching FBI Director Kash Patel chugging beer and partying with the Olympic hockey team in Italy, as if he had some part in their 2-1 overtime victory over Canada.

According to MS NOW’s Ken Dilanian, Patel claimed he had important business in Italy, and it was just a coincidence that the Winter Olympics, awarded to Milan in 2019, happened to be running concurrently.

Speaking with Ana Cabrera, Dilanian asserted no one is buying the embattled FBI director’s story.

“He said he had official meetings and he did have official meetings,” the MS NOW reporter explained. “But when those videos began to emerge last night showing him celebrating in the locker room, that really underscored that whatever else he was doing, he definitely went there to watch the U.S. try to win and ultimately win the gold medal.”

“And that really rubbed a lot of people the wrong way,” he continued. “And there was another exchange. Patel himself screen-shotted a post by my colleague Carol Leonnig underscoring what happened, why he was at the hockey game and suggesting that it was inappropriate to even mention that because he also had official visits. None of this, none of this, is going over well with current and former FBI officials.”

He pointed out, “Look, Kash Patel is a controversial figure. A lot of people don't like him anyway. I have never seen the kind of disgust from current and former FBI officials, as we are hearing about and seeing in response to his, what they are calling, his antics in the locker room. And this is from people who normally support Patel and Donald Trump,” he observed.

He added, “People chug beer and celebrate all the time after championship wins, but not the FBI director. That's just not how any previous FBI director has ever behaved. Some are even pointing out that technically, FBI agents are not supposed to drink alcohol while on duty. So did he violate some kind of code there?”

- YouTube youtu.be

An order from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that a report from special counsel Jack Smith about his investigation of Donald Trump should be kept under wraps may not be as ironclad as she asserted on Monday.

Cannon, the controversial Trump-appointed judge, has been accused of running interference for the president and some of his close associates after they were accused of hoarding stolen government documents at Mar-a-Lago, with boxes discovered sitting in a ballroom and in a barely used bathroom.

According to Cannon, Smith was illegally appointed, making his investigation equally illegal, and the report, compiled after the criminal case was dismissed due to the president being re-elected, was “a concerning breach of the spirit of the Dismissal Order is an understatement, if not an outright violation of it," she wrote in her decision Monday.

On MS NOW, legal analyst Lisa Rubin was asked if that will be the last time Americans will hear about the report, to which she replied, “Yes and no.”

“One of the things that Judge Cannon notes is that no party to the actual proceeding contested her ruling today, meaning both the Department of Justice and anyone affected by the indictment,” Rubin told host Anna Cabrera, “They were all in unanimity that the report should not be released. However, there are two public interest groups, American Oversight and the [Knight] First Amendment Institute, that have tried to intervene in this case.”

“She [Cannon] has said they do not have the right to intervene, but they are appealing that ruling,” she added. “If the 11th Circuit, that's the Federal Court of Appeals that oversees her, decides that they do have a stake in what's going on here, all bets are off on whether this order today ultimately could be reversed.”

- YouTube youtu.be

During a discussion of blowback aimed at the Department of Homeland Security over chaos being created by out-of-control agents, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) stunned the hosts of “Morning Joe” when he pointed out Secretary Kristi Noem has a bigger budget than the U.S. Marine Corp.

That led to a meltdown by co-host Joe Scarborough, who pointed out that US military veterans and active personnel are already getting shortchanged by Donald Trump’s administration.

During a discussion on the push to spend billions on immigrant internment centers, Scarborough interrupted Gallego, a Marine Corps vet, and asked, “So did I understand you correctly? You say that DHS budget is larger than the United States Marine Corps budget?”

“That's right. Yes,” the Democrat from Arizona replied.

After Scarborough, co-host Mika Brzezinski and Gallego briefly talked over each other, Scarborough took control and blurted, “Grotesque. That is grotesque.”

He continued, “Now I want to know, is there anything that Congress can do to claw some of that money back and actually give it to the United States Marines, give it to members of the Navy, give it to members of the Army, give it to the VA? That is grotesque.”

“We have people who have served, suffering, that are not getting health care that they were promised. Can we not claw back that money from ICE and give it to our vets?” he asked.

“Joe, look, I think we can, “ Gallego replied before adding the caveat, “We just have to wait for an election, unfortunately. But that money came from the cuts to Medicaid, right? That money came from those communities in rural Arizona, they're going to have to close down some of their rural hospitals because they needed more money to buy up these big camps they're putting together, to hire these ICE agents that only have about 45 days of training and are given a gun and sent into very stressful areas.”

As Brzezinski started to preview the next topic, her co-host stopped her.

“Really I'm sorry, I can't, I can't, I can't just let that go,” he stated. “Not only are they cutting health care, not only are they cutting health care for our grandparents, for our parents, for our children, and not [just] in blue states, in red states, disproportionately. Not only are they doing that, they've been firing veterans that have worked for the government, firing veterans to give $175 billion to a secret police that the overwhelming number of Americans, overwhelming number of Americans oppose what they're doing, oppose them being secret police, oppose them being in masks. Oppose them arresting Americans, gunning down Americans in the street.”

“And this administration and this Republican Congress has given those secret police more, more money than the United States Marines that is grotesque and it's un-American, “ he added, before muttering “sick.”

- YouTube youtu.be

During an appearance on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” conservative journalist David Drucker suggested that, unless the Donald Trump White House makes a radical U-turn on some of his least popular policies, the Republican caucus can expect an apocalypse in November when voters go to the polls.

After co-host Jonathan Lemire reported the GOP lawmakers are likely “slamming their heads on their desks” after the president insisted he will bring back his unpopular tariffs after Friday’s Supreme Court 6-3 smack-down, Drucker agreed and cited a new Washington Post/ABC News/ IPSOS poll that shows the president’s approval numbers are in a death spiral.

Speaking with the hosts, Drucker pointed to the meager 32 percent of voters who think Trump is “focused on the right priorities,” Drucker stated, “That's a killer.”

“The other problem he has is independents,” he added. “And in midterm elections, especially in all elections, but particularly in midterm elections, we've talked about this at this table, Independents are the whole ballgame. And so unless things change and they probably have a good five, five and a half months before the cake is really baked, they're in for a world of hurt.”

“And you go from just monitoring the House of Representatives to see how many seats are going to flip, to watch, and to see if the Senate will follow the House with it,” he warned.

- YouTube youtu.be

Donald Trump continued his war on the Supreme Court early Monday, apparently still smarting from the bruising landmark 6-3 decision limiting his ability to levy tariffs that was handed down on Friday.

After lashing out at the six justices who did not bend to his will at an impromptu White House press conference, calling the ruling a “disgrace to our nation,” he opened up a new front and insisted the nation’s highest court had already given him free rein to do as he pleases.

On Truth Social, he wrote Monday, “The supreme court (will be using lower case letters for a while based on a complete lack of respect!) of the United States accidentally and unwittingly gave me, as President of the United States, far more powers and strength than I had prior to their ridiculous, dumb, and very internationally divisive ruling.”

He added, “For one thing, I can use Licenses to do absolutely 'terrible' things to foreign countries, especially those countries that have been RIPPING US OFF for many decades, but incomprehensibly, according to the ruling, can’t charge them a License fee - BUT ALL LICENSES CHARGE FEES, why can’t the United States do so? You do a license to get a fee! The opinion doesn’t explain that, but I know the answer! The court has also approved all other Tariffs, of which their [sic] are many, and they can all be used in a much more powerful and obnoxious way, with legal certainty, than the Tariffs as initially used.”

He then fired off another smear, writing, “Our incompetent supreme court did a great job for the wrong people, and for that they should be ashamed of themselves (but not the Great Three!). The next thing you know they will rule in favor of China and others, who are making an absolute fortune on Birthright Citizenship, by saying the 14th Amendment was NOT written to take care of the ‘babies of slaves,’ which it was as proven by the EXACT TIMING of its construction, filing, and ratification, which perfectly coincided with the END OF THE CIVIL WAR. How much better can you do than that?”

“But this supreme court will find a way to come to the wrong conclusion, one that again will make China, and various other Nations, happy and rich. Let our supreme court keep making decisions that are so bad and deleterious to the future of our Nation - I have a job to do. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” he concluded.