by Felicia Schwartz | Nov 5, 2026 | Congress, elections, News, World
Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s prospects for the 2028 Republican nomination may have risen as Democrats wrenched control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections and voters punished the GOP for high gas prices and the Iran war.
Trey Gowdy, a former Republican congressman from South Carolina, said Rubio was the ultimate victor of the GOP’s disappointing night.
“There’s one winner tonight on the Republican side, and that is Marco Rubio,” Gowdy said on Fox News early Wednesday.
While President Donald Trump won’t ever be on the ballot again, his allies will be, Gowdy said. Republican strategists are beginning to debate who from Trump’s camp will be able to mount a successful bid for the 2028 Republican nomination.
The field is likely to be broad. Outgoing Florida governor Ron DeSantis has hinted that he is open to running for president again, as he did in 2024 before being overshadowed by Trump in the Republican primary. So has Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who said in August that it was “no secret” he wanted to be president.
Inside Trump’s administration, speculation about who can carry Trump’s mantle forward centers on Rubio and Vice President JD Vance.
Rubio’s chief rival, Vance has already publicly blamed the war with Iran for the massive midterms rout, in what appears to be an early effort to put distance between himself and one of his boss’ most unpopular policies. From the start of the war, Vance had privately voiced opposition to it, and later led U.S. negotiations to end it.
Rubio, who was hawkish on Iran as a senator, is likely to be grouped into the pro-war camp as various GOP factions
by Zeeshan Aleem | Nov 4, 2026 | elections, Opinion, White House, World
During an Election Day interview with Fox News, President Donald Trump made the surprising announcement that a recurring $4 billion aid package to Israel will be “cut off at the end of the year.” Trump remains under fire for joining forces with Israel in an unpopular war with Iran, and his Tuesday statement sounded like a Hail Mary attempt to help the GOP win over swing voters who oppose aid to the U.S. ally.
If that particular aid package is ended, it’s likely to be replaced by a more covert policy of arming Israel with U.S. weapons. But Trump clearly recognized that it could be politically advantageous to appear to be severing aid to Israel. A slow-moving but seismic shift is taking place across American politics: Progressives are gaining real power in the debate over Israel. Expect them to be even louder as 2028 politicking kicks off.
Trump said on Fox that the $4 billion aid package would end at the end of the year because the Israelis “don’t need it.” But as he continued, he referred to Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, and he made his political strategy clear: “Why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like an El-Sayed when they don’t need it? It’s a bad talking point, because when you say ‘Why don’t we give everybody four billion dollars,’ Israel is our number one, we give them more than anybody else, and they no longer need it, we’ve been doing it for years.”
To the extent that Trump was motioning at a real policy idea, he may have been referring to a memorandum of understanding that provides $3.8 billion in
by Steve Benen | Nov 4, 2026 | elections, Maddowblog, World
Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Fresh evidence of Russian brutality: “A day after a Russian glide bomb attack killed at least 31 Ukrainians at a school distributing medicine and food, emergency workers braved armed Russian drones on Tuesday as they searched for dozens of people still missing, officials said.”
* The crisis conditions in federal law enforcement are ongoing: “The Justice Department is intensifying its investigation into the recruitment of an opponent with the same name as a Republican senator in Alaska, sending letters to about 20 Democrats informing them they might be targets, two people with knowledge of the move said. Sending such a notification at the decisive moment in a close race between the incumbent Republican, Dan Sullivan, and his Democratic opponent, Mary Peltola, is highly unusual.”
* It’s probably best to approach this claim with great skepticism: “On the morning of Election Day, Trump said $4 billion in U.S. military aid to Israel would be cut off at the end of the year, though the country would still be able to buy American weapons. … The president said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought up the topic of stopping the aid, and Trump said Netanyahu told him he thought it would be ‘appropriate if we do not receive aid.’”
* The results of a rapid investigation: “Federal authorities charged an Oklahoma City man with sending hundreds of threatening letters, some containing a nontoxic white powdery substance, to lawmakers and election offices across the country ahead of the 2024 and 2026 elections.”
* Measles claims the life of another child: “A 7-month-old, unvaccinated child in New York’s North Country died after contracting
by Steve Benen | Nov 3, 2026 | Maddowblog, White House, World, World News
Over the weekend, Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a press conference in Atlanta, where he confronted a good question about his boss.
Q: The president has been very active on the campaign trail saying he’s glad that Denmark gave Greenland to the US. That is being perceived differently in Denmark and Greenland. So h as the president misunderstood the agreement?MARCO RUBIO: I’m not sure what comments you are referring to — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-10-31T17:07:52.890Z
Donald Trump, the reporter noted, has been “very active on the campaign trail” in recent weeks, telling voters how glad he is that Denmark “gave Greenland” to the United States.
“Has the president misunderstood the agreement that was made?” the reporter asked.
“Yeah, I’m not sure what comments you’re referring to,” Rubio replied, adding that the president is “fully apprised of” the latest details.
It’s curious that Rubio, who recently became the first and only secretary of state ever to hit the campaign trail in support of a political party, claimed to have no idea what his boss has repeatedly said about the U.S. taking control of an arctic island. But making matters worse is the idea that Trump is “fully apprised of” the details surrounding U.S. policy toward Greenland — because if that’s true, it suggests his relationship with reality is irretrievably broken.
In fact, as Election Day got underway for American voters, the Republican president appeared via phone on Fox News, where he falsely declared that Europe “just gave” Greenland to the U.S., which most certainly did not happen. (Lawmakers in Greenland did vote on Tuesday to approve a recent trilateral security agreement with the U.S. and Denmark,
by The Associated Press | Nov 3, 2026 | News, World
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has conducted defensive strikes on some Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. official said Monday, on the eve of crucial midterm elections.
Iranian state television reported that explosions were heard on Qeshm Island. The official, who wasn’t authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said “Iranians using surface to air missiles against U.S. assets” had been targeted.
The strikes appeared to be limited as opposed to a return to full hostilities but followed President Donald Trump previously saying the U.S. wouldn’t launch strikes on Iran before Tuesday’s midterms. The strikes were reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.
The unpopular Iran war and the resulting impact on U.S. gasoline prices and other parts of the economy have been a vulnerability for Republicans as they try to keep control of Congress.
The administration was last known to have carried out some attacks in early September, but thousands of U.S. troops remain in the waters off Iran to maintain a naval blockade aimed at preventing tankers carrying Iranian oil from getting to the global market. Plus, a third aircraft carrier and thousands of additional troops are on their way to the Middle East.
Earlier Monday, U.S. Vice President JD Vance offered measured optimism that a deal can still be struck to prevent Trump from following through on his threat to potentially order new strikes on Iran after the midterm elections.
Vance sent a letter to Iran’s security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, last week, but the White House has offered scant details about the contents of that correspondence. Trump told reporters that letter was focused on assisting Iran
by Steve Benen | Oct 5, 2026 | Maddowblog, White House, World, World News
When it comes to U.S. ambassadors, Donald Trump has two broad problems. The first is that the president hasn’t nominated enough people to serve in key diplomatic posts.
This isn’t due to a sclerotic Senate struggling to confirm nominees; rather, there are vacancies because the White House hasn’t bothered to nominate anyone. Even in the midst of international turmoil, the United States doesn’t have ambassadors in the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Iraq or even Venezuela, among many other countries.
But the other part of the problem is just as notable: In too many instances, where there are Senate-confirmed ambassadors, their tenures are not going well. The Wall Street Journal reported:
The top Democrats on the Senate and House foreign affairs committees urged the State Department to review the conduct of Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Greece, citing a Wall Street Journal investigation into her efforts to promote gas deals with a Greek company across southeastern Europe.
New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, described concerns in a Thursday letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio about Guilfoyle’s “inappropriate uses of an official position,” including her inclusion of a registered lobbyist in meetings with foreign officials and her promotion of one of the lobbyist’s Greek clients and its joint venture with a Greek state-backed company.
It was two weeks ago when the Journal first reported on Guilfoyle, a former Fox News contributor who is also Donald Trump Jr.’s former fiancée, and her controversial tenure in Greece. Among the most problematic elements of her work has been Guilfoyle bringing lobbyist Christos Marafatsos to so many official meetings “that some
