Democrats are now more trusted than Republicans to handle the economy, inflation, immigration, crime — even national security.

The New York Times released a poll, conducted jointly with Siena University, on Wednesday showing just 34% of registered voters in the United States approve of the job that Donald Trump has been doing as president, while 60% disapprove. The Times noted that this is a lower approval than that of any president at this point before a midterm, with the lone exception of Harry Truman, who limped into the 1946 midterm elections with a 33% approval rating, which the Times noted was “at the dawn of modern polling.”

The numbers are even worse for the president if you compare the difference between his approval and disapproval rating — his “net” rating, as we call it here at FiftyPlusOne — to that of his predecessors. In October 1946, Truman’s approval in our historical average hovered between 35% and 38% — about where Trump is now — but “only” around half of Americans disapproved of him.

Fourteen days before the 1946 midterms, Truman’s net approval stood at −10.3 (37.9% to 48.2%). That is much better than Trump, who, as of our average on Wednesday afternoon, has a 34.8% approval and 62.0% disapproval rating — for a net of −27.2.

Trump approval rating: The latest polls

MS NOW’s polling data partner FiftyPlusOne weights its average by poll quality and recency. Full results are available here.

This comparison makes Trump the most unpopular president of all time, and it isn’t close: The previous record for worst-ever presidential approval before a midterm cycle belonged to George W. Bush in 2006, at −19.3. That was the “thumpin” year of 2006, when Democrats gained 31 House seats and five in the Senate amid widespread backlash to the Iraq War and the federal mismanagement of Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath. Trump is eight points below that level — and 17 below his own standing at this point in 2018, when Democrats gained 40 House seats.

It is not hard to explain this drop in views of the president. Voters elected Trump in 2024 largely because of economic anxiety resulting from rising costs under Joe Biden. But the president has delivered a hard-right agenda — tariffs, mass-deportation tactics — without bringing down the cost of living.

In a CNN/SSRS poll released back in July, 73% of Americans said Trump had not paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems — a record high. Just 27% said he had the right priorities.

That damage has also spread from the president to his party’s reputation — and trust in it to handle those issues. Wednesday’s Times/Siena poll found Democrats ahead by eight to 20 points on the economy, cost of living, gas prices and healthcare. And that’s not a one-poll fluke. FiftyPlusOne compiled every available poll asking which party Americans trust more on a given issue — Gallup back to 1951, plus ABC/Washington Post, NBC/Wall Street Journal, Fox News, CNN and others more recently — and averaged net trust within each two-year cycle, weighting polls taken closer to Election Day more heavily.

The results are shown in the graph below as the gap between the percentage of Americans who said they trust the Democrats and Republicans on each of six key issues. (Positive values indicate Americans are more likely to trust Democrats than Republicans).

Start with the economy. In 2022, Americans trusted Republicans over Democrats on the economy by 14 points in our average; in 2024, it was by 10 points. Today, Democrats lead by six points — a 20-point swing in four years, and the party’s best showing since 2008. Gallup’s long-running measure tells the same story: 51% of Americans now say Democrats will do a better job of keeping the country prosperous, versus 37% for Republicans, the widest Democratic lead since 2007.

The shift on prices is even sharper. Republicans led on inflation by 13 points in 2024. Democrats now lead by 10 — a 23-point swing, and the best Democratic showing according to data going back to 1990.

Immigration has gone from the issue where the GOP posted its best cycle on record — a 14-point Republican lead in 2024, in data going back to 2006 — to a three-point edge, and polls from the latest quarter are roughly even. MS NOW reported the administration’s crackdown is pushing Latino voters away. Republicans still lead on border security and crime, but by far less than they did: 15 points on the border, down from 26, and eight on crime, down from 16.

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MAGA Red melts into BLUE surge in TX, SC: Trump spirals in “ENDANGERED” Red Areas October 21, 2026 / 11:36

Even national security, a Republican calling card for decades, has flipped. Gallup now finds 46% of Americans trust Democrats more to protect the country from international terrorism and military threats, compared with 42% for Republicans — the first Democratic lead since 2007. As recently as 2023, Republicans led by 22 points.

The polls indicate Trump has squandered his party’s advantage on several issues it has dominated for decades. The view from political science is that issue advantages take decades to build — but evidently, only a year to crumble.

Low-info or low-engagement voters — the ones only starting to pay attention to the races in the weeks immediately prior to the elections — tend to react more to the general vibes of the incumbent than particular issues. If that holds, and these voters are turning in now to a president with a worst-ever approval, that will bode well for Democrats in a few weeks.

Control of the House: The latest polls

MS NOW’s polling data partner FiftyPlusOne weights its average by poll quality and recency. Full results are available here.

Faced with these numbers, Republicans may be looking for an escape hatch from the damage Trump has done to their party. They may yet get one by the next presidential election, but are unlikely to get one before votes are counted for the midterms next week. In recent weeks, Trump has held a half dozen unhinged rallies throughout the country that are likely to do little to reassure voters about his performance on the economy, cost of living or foreign entanglements.

If the polls are right, this failed strategy could result in one of the largest popular-vote victories for the Democrats since Watergate.

The post Trump’s historic unpopularity gives Democrats a shot at last-minute undecided voters appeared first on MS NOW.

In the grand Constantine Palace outside St. Petersburg on Wednesday, Steve Witkoff thanked Vladimir Putin for freeing Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired schoolteacher from Michigan who had spent four years in Russian detention. “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that,” President Donald Trump’s envoy told him. The video traveled faster than Hubbard’s plane.

“Humanitarian” is a generous word for a man the International Criminal Court has wanted since 2023 for the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children — not to mention a brutal war launched against Ukraine that has killed up to 600,000, and countless allegations of torture, authoritarianism and cruelty by Putin’s government. In Moscow, that deportation was billed as humanitarian, too. The poor children could not stay in a war zone, the Kremlin claimed, so Russia took them.

Kyiv counts them in the tens of thousands. How many there really are, and how they are being treated, is hard to verify. According to Ukrainian sources, a few thousand have been returned home. But the formula never changes: What Ukraine and the West call theft, the Kremlin calls rescue. Nobody uses the word “humanitarian” as freely as the people who create the need for it.

The Hubbard story is not a simple one. He had reportedly lived in Ukraine since 2014. After the 2022 invasion, he joined a territorial defense unit in Izium, and Russian forces captured him within months. In 2024, a Russian court gave him almost seven years as a “mercenary.” Washington declared him wrongfully detained. His own relatives had said he held pro-Russian views and was too old to fight. But war is war, and an allegedly pro-Russian pensioner ended up as an enemy combatant.

George Kennan, the great American diplomat who was my mentor at Princeton in the 1990s, taught me to judge a country’s politics from its own point of view, not the one we would like it to have. From Moscow, a foreigner in a Ukrainian unit is an enemy. In Joseph Stalin’s time, he would not have been pardoned, but shot. By the Kremlin’s own standards, letting him go is a real gesture — so it is worth asking what it bought.

Trump says there was “no swap.” True, no one was released in exchange for Hubbard. But five days earlier, the White House waived new Russia sanctions. Trump himself said Hubbard would not be free otherwise. So it was not a swap. It was a down payment.

Witkoff is a real estate man, and a skilled one. He knows to tell the client what the client wants to hear. Since his first visits in 2025, hand pressed to his heart, he has understood how Putin likes to see himself. And Putin very much wants to be seen as something other than what he is.

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Trump’s pivot towards Putin sparks bipartisan backlash October 20, 2026 / 07:38

Witkoff, of all people, must have appreciated the setting. Peter the Great began the Constantine Palace in 1720 and never finished it, and by 1945, only its walls were standing. In 2001, Putin had it rebuilt as his presidential residence, gilded in time for the city’s 300th birthday. As flips go, it is hard to beat. Western leaders once came to admire it, too, at the G8 in 2006 and the G20 in 2013. Six months later, Russia annexed Crimea — the opening act of the current war — and most of them stopped coming.

Last month, Alexander Lukashenko said he and Putin often argue over which of them is the bigger dictator. For Lukashenko, who runs Belarus like the collective farm he once managed, it is an earthy joke he enjoys. For Putin, it is an insult. He sees himself as a benevolent KGB major, even a democrat. Russia holds elections, he likes to remind everyone, while Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose official term ran out in 2024, postponed his because of the war. That Russian elections are staged does not matter. They are proof of good character.

Putin’s well-known deepest conviction is that he would be gentler — if only the circumstances allowed. According to his own rhetoric, he believes he is fighting not just Ukraine but the whole West, which has spent years turning up its war rhetoric. Europe now warns that Russia may turn on it next. In the Kremlin, this reads as a story for tired taxpayers about why Ukraine needs their money. So, Putin has no choice but to be tough. And a man forced into harshness is grateful when someone notices his soft side.

Yet Putin is less original than both his admirers and his enemies think. Nearly every Kremlin occupant, tsarist or Soviet, has said the same thing: I would be different, but the people and the times are not right. In the 16th century, the Habsburg envoy Sigismund von Herberstein, watching Muscovite rule, wondered whether a brutal people made their prince a tyrant, or the tyrant made the people brutal.

A century later, the story goes, a European diplomat rode into the capital of Moldavia past rows of rebels impaled on stakes. On arrival, he reproached the country’s ruler for such cruelty. “It’s easy for you to govern your people,” the prince replied. “Try governing mine.”

In Russia, the line is usually credited to Ivan the Terrible or Peter the Great. The mix-up is telling: In Moscow, it has always sounded like something a tsar would say. Kremlin rulers have preferred that answer ever since.

So Witkoff found the soft spot and pressed it. That is what good negotiators do. But Putin is not a typical client. He took the sanctions relief, the praise and the photo opportunity, and gave back one sick 74-year-old man. As deals go, it was a truly humanitarian gesture — if you ask the Kremlin.

The post With his ‘humanitarian’ comment, Witkoff found Putin’s soft spot appeared first on MS NOW.

Elon Musk is arguably the most powerful man in the world — and increasingly he is using that power in deeply dangerous ways.

The Wall Street Journal, citing “U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter,” reported earlier this week that Musk ordered the slowdown of “a military-grade version” of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite system. Ukraine relies upon the system to intercept incoming Russian missiles and fire its drones against Russian targets.

One sentence in the Journal’s reporting speaks volumes about Musk’s increasingly malign influence on politics at home and foreign policy abroad: “With a seeming flick of a switch, Musk has the power to alter the course of a deadly conflict.” (SpaceX didn’t respond to the Journal’s request for comment.)

Since the beginning of the war, Russia has directly targeted civilians with missile and drone strikes. Thousands have been killed and injured. Just this week, a Russian drone attack in a central park in the city of Nova Vodolaha killed two women and four children. The dead included Inna Mariukhna, a 28-year-old school teacher, and her one-year-old daughter Anhelina, who was still strapped into her stroller as the bombs fell.

Musk’s actions make it more difficult for Ukraine to stop these attacks — and increase the chances of a Russian victory against its neighbor. Never before in human history has a single individual not involved in the fighting exercised such extraordinary power over the direction of a major military conflict.

Why is he doing this? In the past, he’s expressed concern that the satellite-based network could play a role in offensive operations that could escalate the conflict into nuclear war. But that doesn’t explain why he’s now making it harder for Ukraine to defend itself.

The simpler explanation is that the world’s richest person is working in concert with President Donald Trump. Over the past two weeks, Musk has joined Trump in publicly attacking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — and blaming him for the continuation of the war.

Trump increasingly holds Zelenskyy and Ukraine responsible for higher global energy prices, which he says are a result of Kyiv’s attacks on Russian diesel refineries. In reality, gas prices are up because of the Iran war that Trump initiated.

Trump is also desperate for a peace deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has been increasing pressure on Zelenskyy to capitulate to Russian demands. Hindering Ukraine’s ability to stop drone and missile attacks is consistent with that strategy.

Trump somehow believes that a peace agreement or an end to Ukraine’s attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure will save Republicans in the midterm elections.

But his obsession with the midterms mirrors that of Musk, who has already spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars supporting GOP candidates this year — which dwarfs the $200 million he spent in 2024.

Musk’s most astounding intervention is in the Texas Senate campaign. Musk, who lives in Texas, has bankrolled Republican candidate Ken Paxton to the tune of $150 million. That windfall has not only kept the state attorney general competitive but also allowed Republicans to spend more freely on non-Texas races.

It is obscene that a single American citizen can exercise so much influence over one election. While we can thank the Supreme Court for loosening campaign rules and allowing such excess, Musk’s profligate spending again speaks to his outsize influence. And now, in addition to millions in donations, Musk’s attempts to boost Republicans have extended to interfering directly in an overseas conflict.

Is America a true democracy when a single, unelected citizen can have such a big impact on an American election? Is it consistent with America’s founding ideals for one citizen, unelected and unaccountable, to have the power to influence the outcome of a foreign war in which vital U.S. national security interests are at stake?

This isn’t the first time Musk has gotten involved in matters of state and left behind a trail of damage. After Trump won back the White House in 2024, he rewarded Musk by putting him in charge of the Orwellian-named Department of Government Efficiency.

In its short, calamitous tenure, DOGE wreaked havoc on the federal government, needlessly firing hundreds of thousands of government employees, weakening the Social Security Administration, undermining decades of scientific research and saving very little money in the process.

Worst of all, in Musk’s own words, DOGE fed the U.S. Agency for International Development to “the wood chipper.” According to the Center for Global Development and researchers at Boston University, the global death toll from USAID’s shuttering is estimated at between half a million and 1 million people.

Musk’s defenders will point to his successful businesses. But clearly Musk is not content with merely being a successful entrepreneur. His net worth is now around a trillion dollars, and he’s using that fortune to exercise power that, in effect, trumps governments and politicians.

He wants vast, outsize domestic and global influence — and that influence is subverting democracy and quite literally leading to deaths around the world.

While once Musk might have played the part of a cartoon villain, he’s increasingly become an actual villain. If Democrats take control of Congress in two weeks, scrutinizing Musk’s business practices, his vast government contracts and his control of the Starlink system should be among the party’s top priorities.

Politico reported this week that senior House Democrats on multiple committees are planning to do just that should the House flip. But investigations are not enough. Making it harder for the obscenely wealthy to exercise such influence in American elections and on American statecraft should also be at the top of the Democrats’ agenda. Musk’s actions over the past two years provide firsthand evidence of the dangers of allowing one man to have so much influence and power.

Musk is increasingly a menace, and since we know Trump won’t rein him in, Democrats must.

The post Elon Musk is trying to make himself more powerful than the government appeared first on MS NOW.

Last week, Elsene became the fifth  municipality to vote for an end to fossil-fuel advertising, joining Saint-Gilles, Jette, Schaerbeek and Molenbeek.

Four of those five votes came in the space of just four months, and together, these municipalities are home to roughly 370,000 people: one-third of the Brussels-Capital Region’s population.

All five are making the same demand: that the Brussels region bans fossil-fuel advertising across the entire city, from metro stations to regional roads. More motions are already being tabled, and by the end of the year, a majority of Brussels’ 19 municipalities could be on record calling for a ban.

While local politicians are taking the lead, the outlook a little higher up the chain looks less promising. 

Europe’s ad town and the EU’s lobby town

Everyday tens of thousands of officials, MEPs, assistants and diplomats brave Brussels morning rush hour on their way to work on the laws that will decide whether Europe meets its climate targets.

Along the way they pass numerous temptations, bus shelters and metro walls selling them petrol cars, weekend flights and gas contracts, normalising the ongoing mass-consumption of these products. 

Once they reach their offices, they meet the same industry again, this time in person. The seven biggest oil and gas companies alone have declared lobbying budgets of almost €64m.

Fossil Free Politics research shows EU Commissioners and their cabinets had nearly 900 meetings with fossil fuel lobbyists in the last term. That’s nearly once every working day, showing just how embedded the industry is in the daily rhythm of Brussels life.

Some files come under particularly heavy pressure, with one egregious example being how a secretive alliance of eleven large multinational enterprises worked to tear down the EU’s flagship human rights and climate law last year, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).

The fossil fuel industry is currently mounting an extremely intense lobbying campaign to delay and dilute the EU Methane Emissions Regulation over the past year.

Over 80 percent of all commission meetings with external interest representatives on this regulation involved fossil fuel lobbyists, and the European Parliament is no better. All 17 MEPs who called for the methane regulation to be reopened in an April 2026 letter to the commission had met with fossil fuel lobbyists in the preceding year.

And those are only the declared figures.

Lobbyists roaming the corridors

Safe to say, the real total is almost certainly higher. According to new research by Reclaim Finance, on two out of every three days, the fossil-fuel lobbyists present at the European Parliament had no meetings scheduled with MEPs. They roam the corridors and cafés in the building, aiming to bump into the MEPs they wish to influence.

The councillors behind these fossil ad ban motions are not pretending that a few billboards will single-handedly solve the climate crisis, but they refuse to continue letting public spaces be misused by the fossil, automotive and aviation industry to freely promote their propaganda; as for the latter, especially since the advertised destinations are often precisely those places that have been the victims of severe climate disruptions..  

“The summer of 2026 was a painful awakening to the harsh reality of the consequences of the climate crisis,” said Mathias Gyselen, the Ecolo-Groen councillor who tabled Schaerbeek’s motion in September.

“Heatwaves, heat islands and heat deaths are unfortunately becoming the new normal in the city. Doing nothing is no longer an option.”

They are right. Advertising is how the fossil fuel industry keeps its social licence, presenting itself as part of the solution while expanding the very products driving the crisis.

Not just the five sub-municipalities of the Brussels capital acknowledge this, but over 70+ cities worldwide have taken steps to clear their streets from fossil fuel advertising, among them Amsterdam, Sydney, Stockholm and Edinburgh.

The problems with advertisements, and multi-million euro lobby strategies, are not just that they very much harm the planet, they are also fundamentally undemocratic. 

Residents, community groups and civil society organisations cannot match the industry’s firepower. They do not have the budgets, the staff or the open doors that put them across the table from lawmakers week after week.

Europe has dealt with this before.

‘Godfathers of climate chaos’

Tobacco lobbyists no longer get privileged access to health ministers, nor can cigarette brands buy billboards. For many similar reasons the world wants to end fossil fuels, the EU banned tobacco advertising because promoting a deadly product was incompatible with public health.

UN secretary-general António Guterres made the same comparison in 2024 when he urged every country to ban fossil fuel advertising, naming fossil-fuel companies as the “godfathers of climate chaos”

Municipal motions are not binding, so the decision now lies with the Brussels-Capital Region, which controls advertising in the metro, along regional roads and on its own infrastructure. A first obvious step is that it should listen to its municipalities and introduce a city-wide ban.

But the message is also addressed to the institutions on the other side of the Rue de la Loi.

If the streets of Europe’s capital are being cleared of fossil fuel promotion, the corridors of its institutions should be too. That means limiting the industry’s access to decision-makers, closing the revolving door, and rejecting fossil fuel sponsorship and partnerships, just as the EU did with tobacco.

The municipalities of Brussels have shown what local democracy looks like. Now it is up to the region and the EU institutions to show that Europe’s capital is not for sale; not on its billboards, and not in its corridors of power.

Should President Donald Trump deliver a primetime address next week with the avowed purpose of impacting the elections nationwide?

Yes. Absolutely yes.

President Trump is often the best proponent of his own policies, and the much-anticipated "blue wave" would effectively paralyze those policies and his plans to finish the battle with Iran, build the Golden Dome and Golden Fleet, and slow, if not reverse, the regulatory overhaul underway.

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Loss of the Senate majority would also mean near-zero chances of confirming any appellate judges or Supreme Court justices. Spending on the Pentagon would also plummet as Democrats return to their long-standing position of insisting that every dollar of increased defense spending must be matched by one for non-defense domestic discretionary spending.

If President Trump makes these arguments directly to voters and names the names of the senators or Senate candidates who are key allies or the Democratic nominees he believes are from the far, far left, the sharpened focus could help mobilize his base to again support his agenda one last time.

13 DAYS UNTIL MIDTERMS, TRUMP HEADS TO SOUTH CAROLINA AS DEMOCRATS WIDEN BATTLEGROUND MAP

There are precedents for such an appeal, and they had mixed results.

On October 24, 2022, President Biden made a direct closing argument for Democrats at Democratic National Committee headquarters, 15 days before Election Day. The expected "red wave" that year was reduced to a ripple.

On October 25, 2006, President George W. Bush held a nationally televised news conference less than two weeks before the midterms. President Bush discussed Iraq and framed the election choice around national security and taxes. It was a news conference, not a formal primetime address. The GOP got "thumped," to borrow President Bush’s own characterization of the 2006 results.

The takeaway from that limited data set? A speech could work to rally a president’s base voters. A press conference won’t.

President Trump’s rallies around the country have always served as a feedback loop for his messaging. He knows it’s his base that turns out, and he tries out various messages and themes, then amplifies what works and cuts what doesn’t in subsequent rallies and in his conversations with the press.

Getting the feedback is particularly important when it comes to turning out the base. As the president has been everywhere in the past month, he has a good idea of what "works" in this campaign cycle.

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The Trump PAC may even want to buy network time for an address, or it may simply allow social media to do its thing. A tight 15 minutes would play and play, give birth to ten thousand posts and reels and, crucially, focus the base and independent voters on the stakes, which are very high indeed.

President Trump has got a fine writing staff, but brevity is not second nature to him or them when it comes to speeches. If he does try such a direct appeal, the crucial points I hope he makes in succinct fashion are these:

TRUMP'S UNUSUAL ROLE AT MIDTERM CONVENTION REVEALED AS SCHEDULE GOES PUBLIC

1. Economists see the next few years as a boom for the nation. We can’t screw it up by ceding control of taxes and spending to Democrats. The 71 economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal this week predict continued and expanding economic growth, falling gas prices and tamed inflation ahead. "Morning in America" is beginning to dawn again.
2. Iran is defeated, but the mop-up will take some months, even though oil exports from the Middle East have risen to levels that exceed prewar levels. President Trump knows the scorecard on the battle by heart. He should repeat it again. The United States has decisively triumphed over the evil Iranian regime, and he will finish the job. It will be easier with Republican majorities.
3. The battle with Iran has demonstrated to the world the need for missile defense and a vibrant, modernized Navy. The president should emphasize his plans for both and warn that Democratic majorities present mortal threats to each.
4. "Medicare for All" is a clever way of saying "higher taxes, rationed healthcare, and diminished healthcare for seniors." President Trump should pledge again to stop efforts to pass Obamacare 2.0.
5. The only thing Democrats can agree on is a combination of obstruction and impeachment. Their commitment to weaponizing all of government and bringing back McCarthyism — this time aimed at every Trump supporter and not just him — is extremely strong. Democrats are unapologetically calling for these things, as well as for packing the Supreme Court and many other radical plans.
6. The Democrats have put forward the most radical set of candidates in American history. Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota, Troy Jackson in Maine and James Talarico in Texas are all extremists camouflaged as Democrats. In Alaska, they have attempted to defeat the great Senator Dan Sullivan by running a "decoy Dan Sullivan" in an attempt to get leftist Mary Peltola over the finish line. Retreads like left-winger Sherrod Brown in Ohio should not replace the effective and able Jon Husted. Congresswoman Ashley Hinson is exactly what Iowa needs. North Carolina should send Michael Whatley to Washington to continue his long-standing partnership with the president. These are easy choices when the big picture is set before voters, especially when they are reminded of just how far off the normal political map El-Sayed, Flanagan, Talarico and Troy Jackson are.

VOTERS PREPARE TO WEIGH-IN ON TRUMP'S ECONOMY AS COSTS CONTINUE TO SURGE

The president should explicitly ask voters to support Mike Rogers in Michigan, Michele Tafoya in Minnesota, Ken Paxton in Texas and Susan Collins in Maine. President Trump should note that Rogers and Tafoya are likely to be as independent-minded as Sen. Collins, who has often opposed presidential policies, but that all of them represent their states very well. 

States that are "light blue" or "light red" deserve senators that represent them, not Hamas or other extremist positions.

President Trump should close by reminding everyone of the mess he inherited. The once wide-open border is now completely closed and sealed tight, with the long-awaited wall nearing completion. Fraud in Minnesota, California and other blue states is being exposed and corrected. Inflation is way down from the 9.1% it reached under President Joe Biden but needs to go down further still, and President Trump and his economic team can get that done with support from Congress, not obstruction.

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And the evil regime in Iran that has terrorized the world for 47 years is on its last legs and wobbling. Its nuclear weapons program is obliterated and will not be allowed to be rebuilt. There is work to be done with our allies across the globe, but taking us down the impeachment road because the Democrats have no proposals to do anything else would be a disaster for everyone.

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"America’s Golden Age is indeed upon us," President Trump should conclude. "I need your vote, and so do these great Republican candidates. Please make a plan to vote and turn out. Thank you. God bless our troops everywhere, but especially in the blockade and at the bases around the Islamic radicals in Iran, and those confronting Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, and God bless the United States."

Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor and host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show" heard weekday afternoons from 3 PM to 6 PM ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh drives Americans home on the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable, hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcasting. This column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM HUGH HEWITT

Regardless of the outcome of the 2026 midterm elections, any party that wins the majority will have done so because of the independent vote. For the past several elections, this cohort has been the crucial swing vote that ultimately decides the election. Independents are the kingmakers.

If Democrats win big on Nov. 3, expect a familiar story. Pundits will call it a mandate. Party leaders will say voters want their agenda. They will be wrong.

I have spent my career in partisan politics, and I keep seeing the same mistake. Both parties read the results of a protest as an endorsement.

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Here is why. Independents do not fit neatly into a partisan box. They are not secret Democrats, and they are not secret Republicans. They agree with each side on some things and with neither on others, which is exactly why neither party can claim them.

That does not mean they lack convictions. Independents, like most Americans, have coherent views on politics and policy. And these positions are widely shared and present opportunity for meaningful legislation. On energy, 70% of Americans want government to actively expand supply: more energy, lower prices, less pollution. On immigration, 77% want legal immigration maintained or expanded, focused on the skills the economy needs. Respect our laws and welcome those who contribute.

WASHINGTON REWARDS FAILURE. IT’S TIME TO SEND CAREER POLITICIANS HOME

On technology, 83% want parents to have the legal right to see and control what their kids do on social media. On spending, 73% want to bar Congress from using accounting tricks that hide the long-term cost of a bill. On corruption, 78% support term limits for members of Congress.

Put those together and the agenda is clear. Live within our means. Keep our promises. Win the future while protecting our communities, kids and liberties. Build a government accountable to people, not parties. That is not the progressive wish list, and it is not the Republican platform either. A vote against whoever is in charge is not a vote for anyone’s program. It is a demand for these things.

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Look at what independents are actually upset about. The border is still unresolved after years of promises. Energy costs keep squeezing family budgets. And artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping jobs and daily life while Congress offers speeches instead of a plan. These are not left or right complaints. They are complaints about people in charge who are not getting results.

Independents are now the largest bloc of American voters. They decide close elections, and they have no loyalty to either team. They vote for whoever seems least likely to make things worse. Two years ago, that was one party. This year it may be the other.

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The numbers tell the story. Roughly two-thirds of independents say Washington does not hear them. That is not a number that describes people who have found a new political home. It describes people who feel abandoned and are looking for the exit.

For a blue wave to occur, it will rest on independents who are holding their noses. They will be voting for Democrats because the alternative looks worse, not because they have embraced the progressive wish list. Treating that vote as a blank check is how a party loses the same voters two years later.

MINNEAPOLIS PROGRESSIVES TURN ON GEORGE FLOYD-ERA PUBLIC SAFETY OVERHAUL, PUSH TO DISMANTLE OFFICE

Consider crime. Most Americans, whatever their party, want safe streets and a justice system that works. Imagine House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries stepping to the microphone to announce a serious, commonsense crime bill. Fund good policing. Go after repeat violent offenders. Protect due process. It would not be a radical idea. It would be a reasonable one.

That single act would change the national story. Independents would take notice. It would say the party is willing to govern from the center and listen to people who do not agree with it on everything.

SCANDALS, SOCIALISTS AND TRUMP ROIL PRIMARIES, SEND INCUMBENTS PACKING AT NEAR-RECORD PACE

But that bill will not come, and the reason is not hard to see. A party that wants the support of the middle is being pulled by a left flank that treats a compromise on public safety as betrayal. Groups like the Democratic Socialists of America hold enormous sway over the energy and the primaries. Jeffries cannot move toward the center without a fight inside his own coalition, and so he does not try.

That is the real danger for Democrats. The very independents who may hand them a majority will be watching to see what they do with it. If the answer is a sharp turn toward the activist left, those voters will leave just as fast as they arrived.

NEWT GINGRICH: REPUBLICANS CAN WIN THE 2026 MIDTERMS — IF THEY FOLLOW THE PLAN

Republicans should not take comfort either. If they lose, it will be because they too failed to listen. Both parties have spent years competing for the loyal base and ignoring everyone else. The result is a country in which most voters feel they are choosing between two disappointments.

There is a better path, and it is not complicated. Secure the border and fix the legal immigration system. Lower energy costs by building what we need. Set sensible guardrails on AI before the technology outruns us. Do these things in a way that respects voters of every stripe, and independents will reward you. Ignore them, and they will punish you, whatever letter follows your name.

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This is why just a few handfuls of independents can entirely change the way we view and conduct politics. A growing share of the country is independent, yet very few members of Congress are. That gap is the story behind the story this November.

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When the votes are counted, the winners should ask a hard question. Did voters choose us, or did they simply reject the other side? The honest answer will decide whether this election is a turning point or just another swing of the pendulum.

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A friend was recently startled to find a Soviet-style hammer and sickle prominently displayed at a farmers market just a block from a monument to those who sacrificed their lives fighting totalitarianism. It's particularly jarring for immigrants from former communist countries to see these hateful symbols cheerfully displayed alongside fresh greens, organic honey and homemade pies.

When my friend engaged the affable twentysomething about her advocacy for communism in America, the conversation quickly became absurd. "Don't you know about the Gulag, the torture chambers, the Tiananmen Square massacre, the murder of 100 million men, women and children?" to which she replied, "I'm not sure what you're talking about…"

The young woman then parried, "All I know is that America has a shameful past and we should try to atone for the crimes of capitalism."

LIBERAL HOT SPOT RESIDENTS CAN’T AGREE ON WHAT SOCIALISM MEANS AS FAR-LEFT MOVEMENTS GAINS STEAM

"What ‘crimes of capitalism?’"

"I’m not sure about the specifics …" She then went on to deliver a short address on how communism will deliver a high standard of living by redistributing the obscene wealth of the rich.

LIBERAL-CITY RESIDENT HESITATES WHEN PRESSED ON BELIEFS: 'I HADN'T REALLY THOUGHT ABOUT SOCIALISM THAT WAY'

When pressed about the historical record, either of communism’s brutality or specifics about so-called American imperialism, the young woman’s friendly smile never faltered. She really couldn't name any of the crimes of capitalism.

Calling for the overthrow of the system that allows for a peaceful Saturday at a farmer's market made the entire conversation seem absurd.

JONATHAN TURLEY: SOCIALISM IS BACK IN STYLE AND DEMOCRATS ARE BUYING THE PITCH

Conversations like this one, between average Americans and self-styled communists and socialists, break down due to differences of content and perspective.

When it comes to perspective, many of the 62% of young Americans, aged 18-29, that think that socialism or communism is a good idea have been educated with a simplistic neo-Marxist lens: U.S. history is a story of oppressor versus oppressed (i.e., patriarchy, race, religious bigotry). The Marxist model can be found in everything from "The 1619 Project" to the platform of the Democratic Socialists of America. Neo-Marxist critical theories attack the perspectives once widely held by most Americans regarding the American Dream and America’s exceptional service to humanity.

SOCIALISM LOOKS APPEALING WHEN SCHOOLS REFUSE TO TEACH ITS HORRIFIC, REAL-WORLD COST

The part of these conversations that's the most flummoxing, however, is not ideological. It is the part of the conversation that is about content: cold, hard facts. Anti-communists of all stripes typically point to the overwhelming evidence of the past and present crimes of communism. At 100 million men, women and children murdered, one would think that the evidence ‘proves’ that this is not just an inefficient system, but a diabolical one.

We have survivor testimony, government records, and some photographic evidence of the concentration camps (e.g., Soviet Gulag, China's Laogai), torture, extermination of minorities, deportations and forced starvation. The violence continues in today’s communist and communist-legacy regimes, from Belarus to Cuba and Eritrea to North Korea.

NORTH KOREAN DEFECTOR ISSUES STARK WARNING ABOUT AMERICA AHEAD OF CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY'S ANTI-COMMUNISM EVENT

The young person at the farmers market will blankly stare when you recite the crimes of communism. She has no point of reference. The crimes of communism are largely unknown; they are untaught and unchallenged in today’s university and high school settings. She has never heard of these things and she is not sure they are believable. Indeed, she will counter, these atrocities have likely been exaggerated and were undoubtedly justified self-defensive measures against capitalist imperialism.

When one does not feel (perspective) that the evidence of communism's crimes demands a verdict, and even disregards that there is evidence of wrongdoing (content), one is living in a different reality than that of most Americans born in the twentieth century. What is to be done?

WANT TO STOP SOCIALISM? A MODERN CIVIC EDUCATION NEEDS A LOT MORE THAN YOU'D THINK

First, we need to work hard to return all of the institutions of our civic life – media, schools, houses of worship, the business sector, K-12 and higher ed and especially the family – to the basics. That is where we educate the rising generation with the facts and values of what we are for and what we are against. We adhere to the principles found in the Declaration of Independence, representative government, free-market economics, personal and local responsibility and democratic institutions.

Second, we need to transmit the facts: the personal stories and larger historical narratives of communism’s crimes and America’s valiant, sacrificial efforts at self-defense and global freedom: the Berlin Airlift, the creation of NATO and the United Nations, the defense of Koreans, Vietnamese and many other oppressed peoples, Cold War victory and post-Cold War friendship (i.e., Eastern Europe) and America’s stunning philanthropic giving.

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Accurate content and right perspective should also reinforce what we are against: all ideologies and regimes that are anti-human, anti-freedom and anti-family. Communism in any form is a political fantasy rooted in envy and a political program rooted in brutality. We need to make it clear to the rising generation of citizens that communism in any form has not been good for others and will not be good for them.

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How does one talk to a communist? Our best hope lies in inoculating our young against communism at the very youngest age with right perspective and accurate content.

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“¿Qué os preocupa a vosotras?”, preguntó el tiktoker CharlyOkei a tres muchachas jovencísimas. “¡Ceuta!”, contestó rauda una. “¿Sabrías situarla en un mapa?”, continuó el entrevistador. Ante su titubeo, otra se adelantó: “Claro, al lado de la Antártida”. Confieso que durante nanosegundos dudé si sería una metáfora del aislamiento que la muchacha considera que sufre la ciudad autónoma. No tardó en despejar mi duda: “Claro, está Ceuta, Melilla y la Antártida”, sentenció. “La Antártida está arriba”, corrigió la que permanecía callada. Conocimientos de geografía cero, pulseritas tres. Porque todas lucían pulsera de España, obvio. Las ves y das por sentado que quienes las portan tienen un conocimiento del país medio alto, pero no, solo es parte del outfit, como los que llevan camisetas de los Ramones porque las vende Zara, pero no diferencian a Joey Ramone de Ramón y Cajal.

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When MSCI floated the idea of downgrading Indonesia to a Standalone Market, anxiety quickly swept through Jakarta’s financial community. Predictably, alarming headlines immediately pointed to foreign capital flight, stock prices dropped and local regulators quickly moved to calm jittery investors. Yet, treating this stock market tremor as a proxy for Indonesia’s overall economic health represents […]

The post Don’t mistake Indonesia’s MSCI scare for economic weakness appeared first on Asia Times.

El PSOE está convencido de que existen muchos paralelismos entre las elecciones del 29-N y las de hace tres años, cuando tras una intensa campaña electoral se evitó una mayoría del PP y Vox en el Congreso, lo que facilitó la investidura de Pedro Sánchez. Sin embargo, existe una gran diferencia de fondo entre las dos contiendas electorales, y es la actitud de no beligerancia que reina entre PP y Vox. Alberto­ Núñez Feijóo se pasó toda la campaña del 2023 pidiendo una mayoría suficiente “para gobernar sin intermediarios” y “libres de la intransigencia de los extremos”. Ahora ya da por hecho que puede darse un gobierno de coalición y ha propuesto a Vox que tengan candidaturas unitarias en el Senado. El PP ha naturalizado la relación con Vox y evita criminalizarlo. Al mismo tiempo, Santiago Abascal ha aparcado sus continuas críticas al PP de la anterior campaña y opta ahora por un perfil más moderado cuando le toca exponer su programa de gobierno. Se trata de evitar que un discurso muy radical contribuya a movilizar al votante de izquierdas.

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Pese a que era el líder de Israel cuando unas 1.200 personas murieron en los ataques encabezados por Hamás el 7 de octubre de 2023, Benjamin Netanyahu tiene opciones sorprendentemente buenas de obtener un buen resultado en las elecciones generales de la próxima semana. En parte se debe a las campañas militares del primer ministro israelí, que le han devuelto el prestigio a ojos de algunos de sus compatriotas. También a que preside una economía que en 2025 logró crecer más de un punto porcentual por encima de la media del 1,8% de los países de la OCDE, el club de economías desarrolladas. Aun así, otro Gobierno podría obtener un dividendo económico.

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El bienestar europeo da signos de agotamiento. Mientras en Francia arden las calles, en España habrá una huelga general el 11 de noviembre. Lo curioso es que no son países neoliberales: nuestro Gobierno está batiendo récords de recaudación de impuestos, y el Estado francés destina alrededor de un 60% de su PIB al gasto público, una de las cifras más altas del mundo. La campaña electoral de Pedro Sánchez versa ahora sobre espolear el miedo a la motosierra de las derechas, pero aún con más Estado, ya hay miles de jóvenes europeos que no pueden alcanzar el bienestar esperado o el que sus padres obtuvieron.

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A la medianoche del 15 de octubre de 2026, mientras los reyes Felipe y Letizia le entregaban un trofeo en forma de globo terráqueo y un cheque de un millón de euros ante 4.000 invitados puestos en pie aplaudiéndola durante 10 minutos, los editores de Penguin Random House se enteraban de que Isabel Allende, la reina madre de su catálogo, les dejaba por otra. Por Planeta, concretamente, el gigante de la competencia, a cuyo celebérrimo premio se había presentado Allende anónimamente sin decirles ni media, junto a otros 1.423 escritores, y que, gracias al prodigioso olfato del jurado, había ganado de calle. Acababa así, por las bravas, una relación profesional, y personal, de 44 años que comenzó con la publicación, en 1982, del superventas mundial La casa de los espíritus y siguió con otras 30 obras siempre rentables para todos. Hasta aquí, una de tantas historias de cuernos profesionales, y personales, en los que el cornudo es el último en enterarse. Pero, más allá de guerras editoriales y cálculos de mercado, me interesan las razones íntimas por las que Allende, una mujer de 84 años con la vida resuelta y los suculentos dividendos de sus libros engordándole las arcas cada fin de año, da semejante campanazo. Se me dirá que por dinero, claro, que nunca es suficiente. Por el millón del premio, multiplicado por tres o cuatro, más los derechos del siguiente libro, más equis prebendas, porque cuando se ficha a una grande, se suele fichar el lote, como cuando la muy fina revista ¡Hola! contrata desde la pedida de mano, la boda, la luna de miel, el embarazo, el bautizo y hasta el divorcio de una pareja de famosos, que ahora se divorcian hasta en las mejores familias. Poderosas razones que, sospecho, no explican del todo el volantazo de la chilena.

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Cuando hace cinco meses caractericé por primera vez el principio rector de la política exterior de Donald Trump como el suicidio de una superpotencia, ya resultaba evidente que su capricho de entrar en guerra contra Irán era una catástrofe estratégica. Ese fracaso es ahora aún más evidente y, lo que es peor, le ha dado a Trump otro pretexto para recompensar a Rusia. La debilidad ha engendrado aún más debilidad.

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Las elecciones del 27 de octubre en Israel estarán dominadas por una única pregunta: mantener a Benjamin Netanyahu o deshacerse de él. Pero hay una lucha más profunda sobre la identidad del país, y las fuerzas antiliberales de Israel están ganando.

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Belén Carreño, la periodista que escribe en este diario el boletín Inteligencia económica, publicó la semana pasada un artículo de opinión sobre un tema muy distinto a los que suele tratar: su vida sufriendo una adenomiosis dolorosísima, desde una primera regla incapacitante hasta el diagnóstico tardío de este tipo de endometriosis. La frase que más ha escuchado y que articula su relato de terror es “no es nada”. Las redes sociales, escribe, se volvieron su ventana a la enfermedad, informándola. Ahora consigue manejar el dolor de su cuerpo gracias a una red de profesionales privados que le ayudan a ello. No es la única. “Es un infierno. Yo dedico casi 500 euros al mes a mantenerme en pie y seguir trabajando. Hoy he tenido que pedir presupuesto en una clínica privada porque me han desaparecido las citas que tenía en la pública”, le responde en X Aida dos Santos, último Premio Nacional de Ensayo por Hijas del hormigón. La Vecina Rubia, una autora y personalidad digital, inspiró a Carreño a hablar en público tras contar a casi un millón de seguidores de X y tres millones en Instagram que había perdido su útero y diez años de vida “soportando que ginecólogos y ginecólogas normalizasen mi dolor y el resto de síntomas”.

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