This is the Oct. 1, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.

“The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”

— Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 1916

They lie even when telling the truth would be better. 

They can lie about Jan. 6. 

They can lie about rigged elections. 

They can lie about everything else under the sun— and they do. 

But there are limits to what even Donald Trump and the Republican Party can keep lying about.

You can start with gas, groceries, home heating costs, and diesel bills. Add on the soaring price of rent, electricity, and healthcare, and suddenly Trump is lying about something where Americans have the receipts. 

And those receipts add up to more than they did when Joe Biden left the White House 20 months ago.

And people know it. 

A new AP-NORC poll illustrates that point in the sharpest of detail. 

Only 17% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the cost of living. And almost half worry about being able to fill their tank and put food on the table.

Meanwhile, Republicans have grown so tone deaf to this crisis and so careless with the facts that they waste their time in the Senate making up stories about who went to Atlanta Hawks games. 

Before Sen. Eric Schmitt accused Jack Smith of perjury, Republican staffers warned him the texts were unvetted. He used them anyway — and made a fool of himself in front of the world. Then he went on a right-wing podcast and doubled down.

It was a perfect microcosm of the Trump era. Lead with lies. Spread them around. Get caught. Keep lying anyway.

They think they live in a post-fact world. But the truth has a way of showing up. 

In the end, there it is. 

On every receipt in America.

CHARTS OF THE DAY

Source: AP-NORC poll of 2,140 adults conducted Sept. 24 – 28, 2026. Margin of error: +/- 2.9 percentage points

The Flailing President

By Jonathan Lemire

In my latest piece for The Atlantic, I open with a scene from last week. President Trump had the South Lawn — and its new helipad — gleaming for the arrival of China’s President Xi Jinping. Then he suddenly realized there was no TV coverage. 

Why? Because he had banned three media outlets — including MS NOW — from the White House. In response, the networks boycotted their TV pool duties. Frazzled aides begged the networks to reconsider. But the answer was no. 

It was a telling moment. As I write:

At the risk of understatement, Trump has never been one to think all that many moves ahead. But his impulsive decision to ban media outlets spawned unintended consequences that derailed his own plans. Again. 

That’s been a real theme for much of this year: Many of Trump’s actions — quite a few impetuous and ill-considered — have only hurt him and his fellow Republicans ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The war in Iran is lurching along; Trump’s poll numbers are falling. And he will soon campaign in deep-red states and others that are now stunningly in play:

More and more Republicans are starting to worry about a blue wave, one that seems certain to secure the House for Democrats but could very well, in an outcome unthinkable even a few months ago, yield a Democratic Senate as well. With barely a month until Election Day, and with early voting already underway in a number of states, Trump and his party are flailing.

Continue reading here. 

WHAT THEY SAID

Katty Kay on a presidency of own goals 

“The story of Donald Trump’s presidency and his involvement in the midterms is one largely of incompetence: Trump has to go to Texas because he made a mistake with Texas. The tariff war with Canada is of his own making. The Iran war is of his own making. A series of own goals have put America, the Republican Party, and Trump himself in this position.”

Sam Stein on the Haitians of Springfield 

“The people who are working with the Haitian community in Springfield say the trickiest part is getting the Haitian community mental health services they need — because they are being shackled and humiliated. They can’t see the people that they love. They’re stuck inside. Their lives are potentially ruined at any moment.”

The post The Trump method: Lead with lies, spread them, get caught, keep lying anyway appeared first on MS NOW.

From MS Now.