The Dictatorship
The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe: ‘They smashed up things and creatures’
This is the Nov. 3 edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.
Mar-a-Lago’s glittering “Great Gatsby” party this weekend laid bare the country’s widening economic divide and the president’s disconnect from working Americans. While Champagne flowed in the opulent South Florida club Saturday night, millions faced the loss of food assistance and skyrocketing medical bills because of Republican cuts. Trillion-dollar tax breaks aimed at billionaires, multinational corporations and tech monopolists make the rich even richer while those trying to make ends meet in Red State America head into winter facing rising heating prices and grocery bills.
The “Gatsby” soiree mirrored the Jazz Age excess that led millions blindly into the Great Depression. That Mar-a-Lago event was called “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody.” Don’t tell that to families relying on food assistance or a little help with their health care premiums.
For too many working Americans, the music stopped long ago.
They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess.”
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, “THE GREAT GATSBY”
THE SHUTDOWN STRIKES BACK
Republicans may have misread their formerly feckless Democratic rivals. With Congress careening toward a record-long government shutdown, it may be Trump and the GOP who are the ones with reason to worry.
New polls show most Americans blaming the president and his party for the shutdown, according to new NBC numberswith the fallout starting to hit Republicans where it hurts.
And this week, that’s in Virginia and New Jersey, where polls show Democratic gubernatorial candidates Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherill with the advantage.
The real problem for Trump and the GOP is that Americans no longer trust the president on the economy. As we reported last week in The Tea, Spilled By Morning JoeTrump’s long-touted economic edge is slipping fast while the “right track/wrong direction” mood has turned grim for the White House.
Meanwhile, only one-third of Americans believe that Trump has lived up to expectations on the economy — while two-thirds think he’s fallen short.
With numbers like these, the president is now reportedly getting involved — pouring millions into the New Jersey and Virginia races.
But it may be a little late. Can Mikie Sherrill really lose when the president boasts that he killed a tunnel that would’ve created thousands of New Jersey jobs and eased workers’ brutal commutes? And how can Abigail Spanberger fall short with federal employees from Northern Virginia facing layoffs while Trump brags about Russ Vought — aka “Darth Vader” — slashing even more?
Chances are good, they won’t.
TALKING BASEBALL WITH BARNICLE
JS: Mike, you believe we just witnessed the greatest World Series ever played. Why?
MB: I had always believed the 1975 World Series between the Reds and Red Sox was the greatest ever played. You had so many iconic moments, like the Carlton Fisk home run. And after baseball had a bad 10-year run, that World Series brought Major League Baseball back into the conversation of popular sports.
But I believe the World Series we just witnessed was actually the greatest World Series that has ever been played.
JS: We know this Dodgers team is historically good. But talk about magic of the Blue Jays?
MB: The Blue Jays were a really good team all along because they played baseball the way it is supposed to be played. They actually put the ball in play. There were a lot of unknown players, but they all did their jobs. They actually hit a lot of singles and a lot of doubles instead of always swinging for the fences, and a lot of those Blue Jay players became heroes through the course of the series by playing the game the right way.
DEATH STAR: 1, BASEBALL: 0
There are nights when fans are reminded why they fell in love with baseball. As Pablo Torre said on “Morning Joe,” the Fall Classic proved again this year to be a timeless event where anything is possible, a game where Miguel Rojas can join the sacred company of Bill Mazeroski with the swing of a bat. In that swing, Rojas delivered October dreams that generations of Dodgers fans will be talking about.
Channeling Pablo here: Game by game, minute by minute, second by second, baseball often seems to stretch time itself. Sometimes that clock runs forever, like the endless night last week when the Blue Jays took the Dodgers 18 long innings before losing.
But baseball fans didn’t just get one classic game from that long night — they got a series packed with them, one magical feat after another, until the story of this entire series became baseball scripture worthy of Cooperstown, N.Y., itself.
BOX OFFICE BLUES
Hollywood wanted a happy ending. What it got instead was a horror show.
This was Hollywood’s worst October in 27 years, pulling in just $425 million domestically. Big titles like “Tron: Ares” and “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” failed to catch fire, making this the worst box office weekend of the year.
Halloween weekend only deepened the gloom. “Regretting You” opened to $8.1 million while “Black Phone 2” hovered near $8 million, marking the feeblest Halloween weekend since 1993. The slump capped months of frustration as studios continued their struggle to get audiences back to theaters.
The year 2025 remains way below pre-pandemic highs, and the hope of a blockbuster season has faded.
Studios hope a stacked holiday lineup — “Wicked: For Good,” “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” “Zootopia 2” and “The SpongeBob Movie” among them — might turn the tide. Add Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” rerelease and a “Wedding Crashers” nostalgia run, and there’s still some optimism left in the projection booth.
The question heading into 2026 is whether moviegoing has a future — or is as passe as Donny Deutsch’s black Baby Gap T-shirts.
INTERLUDE
Incidentally, we had Mara Gay on this morning to discuss the mayoral race in New York City — but we did find time to ask her about her watch- and playlist:
“I’m reading Ada Limón’s “Bright Dead Things.” I’m listening to Lainey Wilson and Aretha Franklin’s “Amazing Grace” album a ton.
And I just finished “Slow Horses,” about the wayward MI6 agents. Desperately sad it’s over for now.”
EXTRA HOT TEA
1 in 7 men report having no friends. Boys are less likely to graduate from high school and college. Men account for 3 out of every 4 deaths of despair. And 98.4% of mass shooters are men.”
SCOTT GALLOWAY, author of “notes on being a man”
CATCH UP ON MORNING JOE
Trump hosts ‘Great Gatsby’ Halloween party as food assistance expired for millions
Joe reacts to new poll numbers breaking against GOP on economy
What to look for on Election Day in Virginia, New Jersey and NYC
SPILL IT!
This week, Maria Shrivernamed to Forbes’ “50 Over 50” list for her work with the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement and other initiatives focused on women’s brain health and impact, joins us ahead of the 50 Over 50 luncheon. Want to ask a question? Send it overand we will pick our favorite to ask on the show!
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And thank you to our many readers who write to us! We appreciate all your well-wishes, questions and feedback. (For inquiring minds — Joe will have answers about his band soon!)
Have more to say? Just write here.
Former Rep. Joe Scarborough, R-Fla., is co-host of BLN’s “Morning Joe” alongside Mika Brzezinski — a show that Time magazine calls “revolutionary.” In addition to his career in television, Joe is a two-time New York Times best-selling author. His most recent book is “The Right Path: From Ike to Reagan, How Republicans Once Mastered Politics — and Can Again.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a vote on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination, a spokesperson said late Wednesday, as two retiring Republicans on the panel dug in over President Donald Trump’s personal “anti-weaponization” deal with the government he runs.
Sen. Chuck Grassley’s decision to delay the committee vote that had been set for Thursday marks a setback for one of Trump’s highest-profile Cabinet nominees, at the hands of Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a pair of Republicans set to leave the chamber next year.
“Chairman Grassley works to set President Trump’s nominees up for success in committee, not failure. Senators Cornyn and Tillis want written assurances from the Department of Justice regarding the Trump-IRS settlement,” the committee spokesperson said.
Blanche’s nomination to permanently head the Department of Justice needs the support of either Cornyn or Tillis to make it out of the committee to a vote by the full Senate, assuming all Democrats remain opposed.
“Why don’t you call over the Department of Justice and tell them they have one hour and 50 minutes to get me what I asked for,” Cornyn told reporters Wednesday afternoon amid the hardening standoff over his demand that Blanche and the DOJ put in writing a commitment never to pursue the president’s prized “anti-weaponization” fund, and to clarify the terms of Trump’s personal deal with the Internal Revenue Service.
Tillis told MS NOW that the conversations were complicated by the need for the Justice Department to get “several parties” to agree on the language of the statement Cornyn and Tillis are seeking.
“What I’ve advised the chair, and I would assume Senator Cornyn said something similar, is that we’re not prepared to vote yes yet,” he added.
“The Department has been in regular communication with Committee members for weeks, and we look forward to continuing to work productively with Senators to address any concerns,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in response to the decision to postpone the committee vote.
Cornyn was set to meet with Blanche on Wednesday morning, but the meeting was called off after Blanche failed to meet the senator’s demand for written proposals to modify the controversial settlement agreement he brokered between Trump and the IRS. The Republican senator is set to leave Congress when his term ends in January after a bruising May primary loss to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Trump’s chosen candidate.
“Maybe John Cornyn’s upset with me because I didn’t endorse him,” Trump told reporters Wednesday afternoon in the Oval Office. “I don’t know what it is, but I haven’t heard that there’s a problem. I heard (Blanche) is going through quite nicely.”
Cornyn made clear to Blanche during his confirmation hearing that he will not get his support until he agrees to reopen and modify the settlement. Due to the committee’s narrow Republican majority, one GOP “no” vote is enough to sink Blanche’s nomination.
The senator has asked Blanche to provide proof that the proposed nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund established as part of the deal between Trump and the IRS is formally dead, and he has also demanded Blanche narrow the tax audit immunity provisions the settlement afforded to Trump and his family.
Blanche has publicly stated that his department has dropped the fund, but he and the DOJ have dodged requests from Cornyn and a federal judge to put that in writing.
After announcing his meeting with Blanche would not take place Wednesday morning, Cornyn told reporters that changes from Blanche “in a modified release form” would be acceptable, but that “for some reason … they simply refuse to do it,” referring to the DOJ.
Shortly after the meeting was called off, a Justice Department official told MS NOW that the department “provided a written proposal to Senator Cornyn’s staff yesterday following ongoing discussion with both the Committee and the Senator’s office.”
Cornyn said that proposal was “not responsive” to his demands because it did not address the tax audit immunity provisions in the settlement, one of his key demands.
In May, Blanche signed an addendum as part of the deal that granted Trump, his family and his businesses immunity from pending IRS tax audits. That agreement, which has been decried by former IRS officials and legal experts as unlawful self-dealing, is being contested in federal court.
Cornyn noted that Blanche testified under oath that he could meet the request during his confirmation hearing.
“Maybe they think I’m just going to give up or you know, go along, but they’re mistaken,” Cornyn said when asked why he thinks the DOJ could be slow-walking his request.
Kevin Frey contributed to this report.
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter covering national politics and policy for MS NOW. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at SydneyCarruth.46 or follow her work on X and Bluesky.
Mychael Schnell is a reporter for MS NOW.
Ebony Davis is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked at BLN as a campaign reporter covering elections and politics.
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived this week for his tour of Washington, he may have had a mission in mind.
Netanyahu needed to overcome his newly diminished stature and waning influence over his once close friend President Donald Trump as both leaders grapple with the unpopularity of a war they started together and is escaping their control.
His meeting at the White House with Trump on Tuesday, which was closed to the press, was the first face-to-face encounter between the two allies since the U.S. and Israel launched a joint attack against Iran on Feb. 28.
Trump gave him a muted welcome and afterwards simply described the meeting as “very good.” “Obviously, many important subjects were discussed,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Rather than an intimate one-on-one setting, the Oval Office was full of top U.S. officials — Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, and special envoy Steve Witkoff.
But Netanyahu continued the full court press on the Trump administration.
Over the course of two days, in addition to seeing Trump and attending Sen. Lindsey Graham’s funeral at the Capitol, Netanyahu also met separately with Vance, Hegseth, and Rubio, White House and Israeli officials confirmed to MS NOW.
The Israeli prime minister’s slate of meetings with key U.S. national security officials comes at a pivotal moment in the Iran conflict as tensions escalate in the region and Americans increasingly sour on the war. A recent Quinnipiac poll shows 60% of American voters opposing U.S. military action against Iran and 74% against sending U.S. ground troops into Iran.
Not only does Trump face pressure as Republicans face an uphill battle to retain congressional control in this fall’s midterms, Netanyahu’s fate as prime minister is at stake in Israel’s upcoming September elections – and he can’t afford to lose Trump’s favor.
The talks largely focused on what to do next as Iran continues to menace shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and retaliate against American bases in the region and launch attacks on Gulf allies.
According to a senior Israeli official who was granted anonymity to describe the closed-door meeting, President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu did not come to a final decision after discussing three paths forward: get a “good deal” focused on Iran’s nuclear program and enriched material, have no deal and instead continue the blockade and economic pressure, or take escalated military action.
But Netanyahu did not tell Trump what he should do – nor did he express a preference.
The senior Israeli official noted Netanyahu has not ruled out diplomacy – as long as it is coupled with “very strong pressures,” calling the push to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program “a contest of will and a contest of force.”
“There are ways of squeezing them and squeezing them and squeezing them and negotiating at the same time,” the official said.
Netanyahu did not present President Trump with new intelligence regarding the underground Iranian nuclear facility Pickaxe Mountain, per the senior Israeli official, noting the U.S. and Israel already are constantly sharing intelligence – and know where Iran’s highly enriched material is. “We don’t think it’s moved, and I think we have a pretty good grasp on that,” the official said.
During their meeting on Tuesday, Trump and Netanyahu discussed ways Israel and the U.S. can work together to stop Iran’s nuclear program and get the Strait of Hormuz open to maritime trade, the senior Israeli official said.
The two leaders also discussed a third goal: to continue to undermine the Iranian regime and “possibly create future conditions for a change in that area.” U.S. officials have backed away from pursuing paths that would overthrow the current leadership, but Netanyahu still believes that could happen.
“The chasm that has been created between the people and the regime is not about to be closed,” the senior Israeli official said of Netanyahu’s thinking.
Netanyahu advised Trump in February that Israeli intelligence indicated launching strikes against Iran would lead to the toppling of the Islamic Republic’s regime – and five months later, the slain ayatollah’s son retains power with a close circle of hardliners, calling into question the accuracy of Israel’s intelligence apparatus.
But the senior Israeli official said at the time, Netanyahu did not promise the Iranian people would take fate into their own hands following a coordinated attack. Rather, he chose his words carefully and said that an attack could create conditions to “advance the probability or the possibility that that would happen.”
The conditions needed for the Iranian regime to fall, “did not materialize,” the official told MS NOW, adding, “not for lack of insight, but for either operational failure or decisions that were made.”
Despite Netanyahu insisting Israel and the U.S. are on the same page, differences still remain: the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey and the Saudi nuclear arrangement did not come up during Wednesday’s White House meeting, according to a second Israeli official granted anonymity to describe sensitive discussions.
Meanwhile, the conflict continues to spread, with an Iranian drone attacking a U.S. gas storage tanker off the coast of Egypt on Wednesday.
Trump indicated he would not let Iran’s latest action slide, telling reporters on Wednesday that the U.S. would retaliate against Iran even as he leaves room for diplomatic talks to resume.
“It’s our turn, and we’ll see if we get there with an agreement at some point,” Trump said. “But we’re going to hit them very hard.”
As for what it would take for Israel to join the U.S. strikes, the senior Israeli official said that if Israel is attacked by Iran, “We will respond very, very forcefully and very quickly. And I think Iran would make a great mistake.”
Julia Jester covers politics for MS NOW and is based in Washington, D.C.
International rage over FIFA’s close ties to President Donald Trump has reached a fever pitch after soccer’s governing body announced a plan to sell a significant stake to an investor group led by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law.
The president and his family have all but turned the White House into their personal piggy bank. And FIFA — which has its own sordid history of corruption — seems to have made itself a party to Trump’s self-enrichment under Gianni Infantino’s leadership, such as by paying for space inside Trump Tower in New York. (The organization has defended the office rental as a World Cup outpost.)
Soccer is seen by many as a unifying game. But Trump’s incorporation of FIFA into his political dynasty is threatening that idea.
FIFA has announced plans to sell a large minority stake in a new company that will run its main events, including the World Cup and Club World Cup, as part of a plan to triple the amount of development money it dishes out to its 211 member associations.
Under the proposals — which are subject to approval by a majority of those national associations and FIFA’s 37-member council — a new entity called FIFA Forward Enterprises (FFE) will take over all commercial operations, while FIFA remains the game’s global governing body and retains a majority stake in FFE.
A press release from FIFA confirmed the plans and said Thrive Eternal, which was launched by Joshua Kushner, is expected to lead the investment group that would control FIFA Forward Enterprise. FIFA did not clarify why Thrive Eternal was selected, and Kushner was already dabbling in sports.
But Trump basically has already given son-in-law Jared Kushner carte blanche to dictate U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East while simultaneously hatching business plans in the region. (Jared Kushner has denied any conflicts of interest.)
Joshua Kushner reportedly has been a major donor to Democrats. But, predictably, the idea of another Kushner becoming financially entwined with the World Cup — the world’s most popular sporting event — and basically being dropped into a position of global significance isn’t going over well. Several other soccer governing bodies have expressed concerns, including Europe’s UEFA.
“This crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross,” UEFA said in a statement about The Athletic’s report, adding: “The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade — especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially. None of us are the owners of football. It is not FIFA’s to sell.”
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee also rebuked the plan, writing on X: “Apparently the fake Peace Prize and giant lease with Trump Tower weren’t enough — now Infantino performs a kickback hat trick by pursuing a multibillion-dollar deal with Jared Kushner’s brother to sell ownership stakes in the World Cup to private investors.”
FIFA, Donald Trump’s favorite corrupt racketeering enterprise in world sports, is now going directly into business with the Trump family!
Apparently the fake Peace Prize and giant lease with Trump Tower weren’t enough—now Infantino performs a kickback hat trick by pursuing a… https://t.co/knSZibuMea
— House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) July 28, 2026
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., has already launched an investigation into the FIFA leader’s relationship with the Trump administration, while dozens of European lawmakers — citing concerns about “potential breaches of political neutrality” — have called for the FIFA Ethics Committee to investigate Infantino. This new proposal seems unlikely to assuage those concerns.
But what it does seem likely to do is fuel global anger toward the U.S. — the kind that has been growing since Trump retook office.
And when you consider that, it’s truly remarkable how the same MAGA movement whose members whined for years about politics mixing with sports is now in lockstep with a president who seems dead-set on casting his shadow over every sports event he can.
This post on X basically sums up the foul stench around FIFA’s latest proposal.
Sepp Blatter was Infantino’s predecessor as FIFA president and oversaw the organization amid some of its many scandals. When heof all people, is warning about how Trump and Infantino’s relationship is “deeply damaging” soccer, it’s a sign of how far FIFA has descended into the gutter.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.
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