This is the Oct. 29 edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.

“This is a president who has actually lost money for being president of the United States.”

— White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt last year.

GUEST ESSAY

Trump’s financial disclosures this week showed not millions but billions in wealth growth for the president and his sons — in a single year. 

His defenders call that transparency. Voters, standing at gas stations where prices are only now returning to reality, have another word for it: unfair.

It’s a split screen the White House keeps producing heading into the midterms. Billions on the disclosure forms while voters rank affordability as their top concern. Gatsby parties at Mar-a-Lago during the shutdown while Americans stood in food bank lines. Calling affordability a hoax while pressing on with vanity projects on the White House lawn.

Republicans had an open-book test on how to message the economy. They passed it in 2024, winning the election by hammering the Biden-Harris administration for failing on affordability. Yet now they’ve reached for the very same talking point: “Isn’t the stock market doing great?”

It turns out, once again, the stock market is not the litmus test the American public wants.

A RAINY FOURTH?

From NOAA: “Isolated to scattered storms will be possible from the central Plains into the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic this Fourth of July. The greatest concentration of strong to severe storms will be within portions of the Mid-Atlantic.”

WHAT THEY SAID

Eugene Robinson on Iran talks 

“It is fascinating how President Trump is essentially making JD Vance hold the bag on this. Vance is out having to try to justify and explain this war, negotiate a peace with the Iranians, while the president sits back and flies around on his new jet.”

Richard Haass on public service 

“I’m old enough to remember when going into government meant a degree of sacrifice. The blatancy and the nakedness of Trump’s conflicts of interest is striking — he’s getting away with it on a scale that is really unprecedented.”

Stephanie Ruhle on stock market and affordability

“People cannot afford the basic things they need — a place to live, a decent job — to get their lives started. When the president is boasting about 401(k)s, people who can’t get a job don’t have a 401(k) to feel good about.”

Jonathan Lemire on the U.S. World Cup win

“It was a really thrilling win. Next up: Monday night in Seattle against Belgium will be a scene, with the U.S. on the precipice of the quarterfinals. Making it that far would be a resounding triumph for the hosts of the World Cup.”

MAILBAG

Do you have a favorite Fourth of July memory or tradition? Tell us here, and we may share your answer in an upcoming newsletter.

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The post The stock market is not the litmus test the American public wants appeared first on MS NOW.

EXCLUSIVE: Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman) is set to produce rom-com feature Best Men about a romantically challenged “man of honour” who falls for the groom’s charming best man. Jenkins is developing the project with filmmaker Jason Crain who will direct the the adaptation of Sidney Karger’s script, adapted from his debut novel. Published in May […]

In his first week as the acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, the highly controversial director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, did largely what his critics expected him to do.

Pulte, a shameless presidential sycophant who has weaponized mortgage fraud allegations against Donald Trump’s perceived political enemies, hit the ground running, firing intelligence officials, hiring a former Republican National Committee official with a background in elections issues to work as his chief of staff, and generally imposing “chaotic” new conditions inside the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

As his second week in office nears its end, Pulte’s powers appear to be expanding, despite — or perhaps because of — his inexperience and partisan antics.

During a brief Q&A with reporters Wednesday, the president said, “Bill is there just for a fairly short period of time, but while he’s there, I said, ‘You can declassify whatever you want.’”

Trump went on to say he encouraged the acting DNI to “do it fast,” adding, “I think that Bill will declassify.”

He didn’t elaborate as to what, exactly, Pulte might declassify, though NBC News reported earlier this week that the White House intends to declassify thousands of intelligence documents as part of the GOP’s broader effort to advance Trump’s conspiracy theories about his defeat in the 2020 election.

Relatedly, the president recently declared that he expects Pulte to use the office to perhaps “find out some things about the rigged elections,” reinforcing obvious concerns about the unqualified housing official playing the role of a partisan weapon in pursuit of Trump’s discredited ideas.

Time will tell what, if anything, Pulte declassifies, but the possibility of partisan recklessness has already sparked concern on Capitol Hill. Two weeks ago, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote to Pulte and specifically focused on this issue.

The Democratic lawmakers — the ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, respectively — went on to remind the new acting DNI to follow “established policies and practices” and consult career intelligence officials before declassifying anything.

“Given the extremely sensitive nature of intelligence, we expect that you will not declassify properly classified information that would compromise intelligence sources and methods, or weaponize the declassification process for partisan political purposes,” they wrote.

Two weeks later, it’s difficult to have confidence that Pulte will follow the Democrats’ sensible advice.

The post Despite his recent antics, acting DNI Bill Pulte gets broad declassification powers appeared first on MS NOW.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding celebrations at Madison Square Garden are fast approaching … and now there’s a live stream capturing every moment outside the venue. This is shaping up to be the wedding of the century … and now folks can…

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President Donald Trump and his allies have long argued that Trumpism is part of a global movement reshaping the West.

Now that coalition is showing signs of strain over Trump’s war with Iran, his public criticism of allies and his threats to reduce American military support.

Not long ago, Trump appeared to have a point.

In 2025, nationalist leaders from across Europe gathered in Madrid for the Patriots for Europe summit, promoting a “Make Europe Great Again” agenda modeled on Trump’s “America First” movement.

The meeting included a close ally, right-wing populist Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, who was unceremoniously dumped out of power in an election earlier this year in a blow to the Trump administration, which had sent Vice President JD Vance to campaign for him.

Also in attendance were Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Poland’s Karol Nawrocki, both of whom embraced many of Trump’s positions on immigration and cultural issues. Trump also endorsed Nawrocki during his presidential campaign.

But a series of recent disputes is exposing cracks in that alliance, as Trump’s “America First” agenda increasingly collides with the national interests of the leaders who once embraced it.

The clearest example is Meloni, long regarded as Trump’s closest European ally. She attended his inauguration and sought to position herself as a bridge between Washington and Europe. But the relationship has frayed over the administration’s handling of Iran and Trump’s increasingly personal criticism of the Italian prime minister.

After Italy declined to fully support U.S. military action involving Iran, Trump publicly criticized Meloni, saying he was “shocked” by her position and declaring, “I thought she had courage, but I was wrong.”

Shortly afterward, during the Group of Seven summit, Trump claimed Meloni had “begged” him for a photograph. Meloni pushed back publicly, accusing Trump of treating democratic allies with less respect than authoritarian leaders.

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Poland offers another example.

Trump enthusiastically backed Poland’s Nawrocki, hosting the conservative presidential candidate at the White House just weeks before the vote and declaring that Poland had “picked a winner.” But the goodwill was undermined by a separate Pentagon decision. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a review of U.S. troop deployments and canceled plans to send 4,000 additional American troops to Poland. The move alarmed officials in Warsaw, who view a sustained U.S. military presence as essential to deterring Russia.

The disagreement reflects a broader divide. Trump has repeatedly questioned U.S. security commitments overseas, while Poland’s conservative leadership has consistently called for more American troops, stronger NATO guarantees and continued military support for Ukraine. One of Trump’s strongest ideological allies in Europe is, in effect, arguing for greater U.S. engagement, not less.

In recent weeks, Trump has also criticized European allies for refusing to fully support U.S. operations involving Iran, singling out countries including Italy and Spain while questioning whether the United States should continue underwriting Europe’s security.

At the same time, the administration is reviewing U.S. troop deployments across Europe, raising concerns among governments that have long relied on the American military presence.

Leaders who once embraced Trump as an ideological ally are discovering that the limits of ideological solidarity are defined by national interest. As U.S. policies begin to threaten their own security, economies and domestic political standing, many are putting their own countries first.

Trump has argued that Europe’s nationalist leaders are part of the same political movement as his own. But the nationalism they share is also what is driving them apart, as each government pursues its own interests.

This is a preview of MS NOW’s Project 47 Newsletter. As President Trump continues implementing his ambitious agenda, get expert analysis on the administration’s latest actions and how others are pushing back sent straight to your inbox every Tuesday. Sign up now.

The post Trump’s international movement of nationalists is falling apart for an obvious reason appeared first on MS NOW.

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