This is the Oct. 19, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.

“If the United States will officially take the side of Russia … we will not prevail and we will not be able to stand.”

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on “Meet the Press” after President Donald Trump waived sanctions on Russia

In 1983, Ronald Reagan stood before a room of evangelicals in Orlando, Florida, and denounced the Soviet Union as an “evil empire.”

Two decades later, a former KGB officer named Vladimir Putin mourned that empire’s collapse as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.”

Donald Trump has obviously taken the former KGB agent’s side over Reagan’s.

On Friday, the president waived bipartisan sanctions against Russia that he signed into law last month. He called it a “very simple” decision.

It’s an easy choice if you want America’s enemies to win.

Trump then approved the Russian diesel deal. Then the slowing of Starlink over Ukraine. That’s been followed by a week of non-denial denials from a president who bizarrely insists that no one is responsible.

The Keystone Cops routine would be funny if the consequences weren’t so deadly. Russia is moving closer to winning in Ukraine and setting their sights on the rest of Europe.

Even The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page now calls Trump “Mr. Putin’s best friend in the world.”

What an October surprise, and what bad news for Republicans.

GOP candidates are scrambling to distance themselves from the Trump-Putin alliance while losing support over the high cost of living and the low approval ratings haunting Trump.

A new Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll puts those approval ratings at 33%, lower even than after he encouraged the Jan. 6, 2021 attacks on Congress.

Only 18% of Americans say they’re better off than they were a year ago.

Yet through it all, the president can’t quit Putin — one of the most ruthless war criminals on the planet. Left behind are those freedom fighters who continue to defend Western democracy on the front lines in Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy warns that they cannot continue fighting if America takes Russia’s side.

Tragically, Donald Trump already has.

CHARTS OF THE DAY

Source: Economist/YouGov poll of 1,403 registered U.S. voters conducted Oct. 10-12, 2026. Margin of error: ± 3.5%

ON THIS DATE

On Oct. 19, 2025, thieves broke into the Louvre and made off with more than $100 million in 19th century-era jewels, setting the stage for a year seemingly rife with art heists.

Kiran Ridley/Getty Images
A French forensics officer examines a cut window and balcony at the Louvre Museum in Paris following a robbery on Oct. 19, 2025.

WHAT THEY SAID

Jonathan Lemire on the midterms

“The fact that we’re talking about the Senate at all is instructive. The House has always been favored to lean Democratic, but the Senate is a true toss-up. Eight months ago, those seats weren’t even in play, but now they feel tantalizingly within Democrats’ grasp.”

David Ignatius on Trump’s decision to import Russian diesel fuel

“It’s a betrayal of Ukraine — courageous allied people facing the worst winter of their lives — for the frailest of political reasons. There’s no evidence to support the idea that this diesel deal will make a difference in the prices people pay. If anything, it’s making Trump more vulnerable politically, as Republicans pull back from him.”

Eugene Robinson on tech billionaires

“A handful of absurdly wealthy men have ridiculous control over a democracy, and we’re pretending that that’s OK. That’s not the way this is supposed to work, but there you have it: You go to Elon Musk for our national security concerns and to Mark Zuckerberg for our First Amendment rights. We’ve dug a hole for ourselves as a country that it’s going to take a while to get out of.”

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