Feb. 24, 2026, 1:35 PM EST

With the U.S. massing forces within striking distance of Iran, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Tuesday with the “Gang of Eight,” a group of party leaders in the House and Senate customarily informed by the White House when military attacks are imminent.

Rubio was briefing the senior lawmakers hours ahead of the President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, with tensions with Tehran over its nuclear program looming over the speech.

Typically, presidential administrations will let the group know ahead of major military actions, such as the 2011 raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at the direction of former President Barack Obama.

The Trump administration, however, has not briefed the group in advance of recent military operations, including the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January (the group was briefed afterward), the killing of top Iranian general in 2020 and Operation Midnight Hammer last summer, in which U.S. forces bombed three nuclear sites in Iran.

The decision to brief these senior lawmakers now signals that any action against Iran the administration is weighing may be more substantial.

The current Gang of Eight consists of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.; House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.; Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Mark Warner, D-Va., the chair and ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee; and Reps. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., and Jim Himes, D-Conn., the chair and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Congressional Democrats have expressed concern that Trump is circumventing the War Powers Actthe federal law that requires the president to obtain congressional approval before committing armed forces to combat.

Last week, Schumer underscored in a statement that Congress alone has the power to declare waradding that “the administration has yet to articulate to Congress and the American people what the objectives or strategy would be for any potential military campaign against Iran, let alone what it would mean for the lives of American service members or the costs for American taxpayers.”

The U.S. and Iran have been in fragile negotiationsin recent weeks regarding Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Trump has also called for regime change in Iranafter widespread unrest in the country, and publicly clashed with the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Each has threatened the other with military action.

The Pentagon sent the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest warship, and another aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, as well as other U.S. military assets to the region ahead of a potential attack. Iran has warned that it will retaliate if threatened.

CORRECTION(Feb. 24, 2025, 2:42 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that President Donald Trump was slated to brief the “Gang of Eight” on Tuesday. The briefing is being held by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and is not on Trump’s official schedule.

Erum Salam is breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian and is a graduate of Texas A&M University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Follow her on X, Bluesky and Instagram.

Feb. 24, 2026, 1:09 PM EST

Four years ago this weekRussian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A war he expected to win in just days has become one of the longest and costliest conflicts Russia has fought since World War II. What began as a blitz intended to decapitate Ukraine’s government has hardened into a grinding war of attrition. The United States’ initial commitment to supporting Kyiv has given way to a policy of strategic ambiguity, with neither Ukrainian victory nor a lasting end to the conflict appearing now to be Washington’s objectives.

With no sweeping changes in territorial control since 2023, Russia has suffered staggering losses for marginal territorial gains. Ukraine’s cities have been batteredits infrastructure repeatedly targeted and its people tested by cold, darkness and relentless attack. Yet Ukraine’s survival as a sovereign state is no longer in immediate peril.

This winter has been the harshest of the extreme conditions Ukrainians have endured. Unable to achieve decisive success on the battlefield, Russia has turned to a punitive strategy aimed squarely at civilians, striking energy systems to deprive Ukrainians of heatlight and water. Having failed militarily, the Putin regime is relying on coercion and cruelty.

Despite this, Ukraine perseveres. Through national mobilization, innovation and sacrifice, it has blunted Russia’s advantages in size, population and resources.

Ukraine’s fight has become one of the defining tests of the 21st century: whether democracies can defend themselves against revanchist autocracy. That is the question confronting Washington, as much as U.S. lawmakers avoid it.

For decades, American foreign policy rested on a simple but powerful insight: Values are not a distraction from power but the source of it. Alliances endure because they are rooted in trust. Deterrence works because adversaries believe the United States will act consistently and predictably. When values guide strategy, American power multiplies. When they are abandoned, power erodes.

The pattern extends beyond Ukraine. Tariff disputes with European partnersflirtation with illiberal movements seeking to weaken the European Union and repeated attacks on alliance commitments have created confusion where clarity is needed. This is not a coherent “America First” strategy. It is strategic drift that shifts the global balance of power in Moscow’s favor.

Under the Trump administration, American policy toward the largest war in Europe since World War II has drifted away from that foundation. Rather than reinforcing deterrence, strengthening alliances and shaping a just peace, U.S. actions too often have pressured Ukraine while offering political and rhetorical relief to Russia. Foreign policy has been treated less as an instrument of American security than as a means for transactional leverage and private advantage. The mirage of deals directed at Trump, his family and friends has warped American policy toward the Russia-Ukraine war, distorting strategy and undermining trust.

Washington policymakers forget at our peril: Chaos abroad never stays abroad.

When American leadership falters, global energy markets destabilize, supply chains fracture and investor confidence weakens. Prices rise. Working families pay more for fuel, food, insurance and utilities. Strategic incoherence overseas creates higher prices and greater insecurity at home. The rising cost of living in my home state of Florida is a reflection of this reality. When wars last longer because deterrence fails, Americans pay financially and strategically.

Corruption compounds these failures. When personal interests shape policy, adversaries exploit it. When allies lose confidence in American integrity and reliability, U.S. influence evaporates. Corruption is both a moral failing and a strategic vulnerability. It weakens deterrence and raises the cost of resolving crises. Crushing corruption is a national security imperative.

Ukraine’s struggle against armed aggression mirrors a broader struggle within other democracies: whether free societies will allow power to be abused for personal gain, or whether they will insist on accountability and the rule of law. The scale is different, country by country, but the stakes are linked. A world where corruption guides policy is a world of longer wars, weaker alliances and higher costs for ordinary citizens.

As the war in Ukraine drags on, a years-old threat to elected democracies, will the United States rise to meet the moment — or will Washington continue its slide into chaos, corruption and strategic self-harm?

America does not need theatrics or dealmaking illusions. It needs leadership anchored in national interest, guided by values and accountable to the public. Serious strategy shortens wars. Integrity strengthens deterrence. Credible leadership cuts costs — both human and economic — and reduces the likelihood that the next war could be longer and more dangerous than this one.

Alexander Vindman is a retired Army lieutenant colonel and former director of European affairs for the National Security Council. He is a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Florida.

Feb. 24, 2026, 12:46 PM EST

This is the Feb. 24, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter.Subscribe hereto get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.

“Putin has not achieved his goals. He has not broken the Ukrainian people. He has not won this war.”

— Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

ON THIS DATE

Ukrainian service members fire an anti-aircraft weapon toward a Russian drone from a sunflower field, July 2025. Roman PILIPEY / AFP via Getty Images

Today marks the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin’s war has caused millions of casualties, thousands of civilian deaths, and the mass kidnappings of Ukrainian children.

Russian attacks against civilians have skyrocketed since Trump re-entered the White House last January. The war remains a bloody stalemate.

Source: The Associated Press

A CONVERSATION WITH REP. RITCHIE TORRES AND THE REV. JOHN UDO-UKON

President Donald Trump is expected to tout his economic record in his State of the Union address tonight — but not everyone in the chamber will be applauding. Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York is bringing the Rev. John Udo-Okona South Bronx pastor who runs a food pantry where people line up as early as 3 or 4 in the morning, as his guest — a pointed reminder, Torres says, of a very different reality. Both men joined “Morning Joe” to talk about what the affordability crisis actually looks like on the ground.

WG: Congressman, who is Rev. Udo-Okon, and what do you hope Americans will take away from his presence in the chamber tonight?

RT: Pastor John is a faith leader in the South Bronx. He runs one of the largest pantries in one of the poorest congressional districts in America. Donald Trump ran on a promise to lower prices, but he’s done the exact opposite. Under Trump, the cost of food, health care, housing, utilities have all been rising. The president is more concerned with oil in Venezuela and minerals in Greenland than with lowering prices here at home. He promised to put America first — instead, he’s putting working families last.

WG: Pastor, what are you seeing on the ground right now?

JU: One of the first things this administration did when they came into office was pull funding for most of the programs supporting our community. We lost funding for food programs, for health outreach activities — and from Day 1, it has been chaos. So much pain, suffering, and uncertainty.

Many people cannot go to the grocery store because of high prices, and some of the safety nets they depend on, like SNAP benefits, have been under attack.

JL: Tonight, President Trump will likely claim that his economy is working — that he’s even solved the affordability crisis. How do Democrats convince people otherwise?

RT: The notion that Donald Trump has solved the affordability crisis is dangerously delusional. America is the wealthiest country on earth, yet 47 million Americans are struggling to put food on the table. In a country this wealthy, hunger is not an inevitability — it’s a choice. And Donald Trump has chosen to cut Medicaid by $1 trillion, cut SNAP by $200 billion, and to impose tariffs that are effectively regressive taxes on working people.

MB: Pastor, what is your message for the president and Republicans tonight?

JU: As a pastor, I believe that everyone who calls themselves Christian should live by the teachings of the Bible. And the cardinal teaching of the Christian faith is love. Love God, love your neighbor as you love yourself. There is no love in taking food away from children. There is no love in putting seniors on fixed incomes at risk. There is no love in taking health care from the poor.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for brevity and clarity.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS WALTZES TO THE TOP OF THE BOX OFFICE

Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie have reason to smile: “Wuthering Heights” is now the top movie in the world, with ticket sales surpassing $150 million.

Variety reports that the gothic romantic drama was the No. 1 international box office draw this past weekend, and it has surprised studio execs by becoming a massive hit overseas, with foreign ticket sales climbing to $91.7 million to date.

ICE’S DETENTION EXPANSION: NOT IN MY BACKYARD

A protest against ICE detention facilities held last week in Melrose Park, Ill.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is converting warehouses across the country into immigrant detention centers — and the backlash is arriving from places the administration likely did not expect.

ICE tells MS NOW it has already purchased 10 facilities, which it says will meet regular detention standards and bring hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue to each surrounding community.

But resistance is growing on multiple fronts. In towns from Surprise, Arizona, to Social Circle, Georgia, Trump voters are joining Democrats in pushing back, with concerns ranging from strained local infrastructure to the humanitarian implications of holding people in industrial warehouses for an average of 60 days.

Mississippi Republican senator Roger Wicker said a proposed ICE facility in his state was scrapped after he sent a letter of opposition to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Late last week, Bishop Brendan Cahillthe chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, called the plans “deeply troubling.”

“The thought of holding thousands of families in massive warehouses,” he said, “should challenge the conscience of every American.”

EXTRA HOT TEA

LIFE IS LIKE A BOX OF CHOCOLATES

You never know what you’re going to get — and apparently, neither does the grandson of the man who invented Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Brad Reesewhose grandfather H.B. Reese founded the Reese candy empire, is calling out parent company Hershey after discovering the company has quietly swapped real milk chocolate for “chocolate-flavored coating” in a recent Valentine’s Day edition of the beloved treat.

“For most of my life I ate at least one Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup per day, and sometimes something seasonal like a Reese’s heart or a Reese’s Christmas tree,” Reese told NBC News. “But this was inedible. I threw it in the garbage.”

In a letter that went viralReese accused Hershey of abandoning the ingredients that built “Reese’s trust” — i.e., real peanut butter and milk chocolate. In a statement, Reese’s said it had made recipe adjustments to a few of its products, but not its Peanut Butter Cups.

It’s part of a broader trend: Candy companies have spent recent years quietly raising prices and swapping out ingredients in response to higher cocoa costs, labor shortages, and drought.

Forrest Gump tried to warn us.

ONE MORE SHOT

Boston Red Sox third baseman Marcelo Mayer and manager Alex Cora share a laugh in Fort Myers as spring training kicks into full swing. With all the money the New York Yankees are spending on their payroll, Boston insider Jon Lemire says the Sox will be lucky to win 50 games this year.

CATCH UP WITH MORNING JOE

Former Rep. Joe Scarborough, R-Fla., is co-host of MS NOW’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.”