The Trump method: Lead with lies, spread them, get caught, keep lying anyway

MS NOW host Joe Scarborough contends that Republicans enter the final stretch before the November midterms hurt largely by their own blunders, with household costs the one subject they cannot spin. An AP-NORC survey of 2,140 adults, conducted Sept. 24 to 28, 2026, found just 17% approving of President Donald Trump's handling of the cost of living, and about half of respondents worried about paying for gas and groceries. The margin of error was 2.9 percentage points.

Scarborough cites Senator Eric Schmitt as an example of sloppiness. Schmitt accused Jack Smith of perjury using text messages that Republican staff had cautioned were unverified, and he repeated the charge on a right-wing podcast after the error surfaced.

Scarborough also describes Trump barring three outlets, MS NOW among them, from the White House. When China's President Xi Jinping arrived at a prepared South Lawn, no television cameras were there, since the networks refused to carry out pool duties despite appeals from aides. Meanwhile the Iran war drags on, Trump's poll numbers are sliding, and Republicans fear a blue wave that would deliver the House to Democrats and might flip the Senate, with early voting already open in several states.

Summarized by PolitiKool from MS NOW’s reporting. Read the full story at MS NOW →