NewsNation Chief Washington Anchor and On Balance host Leland Vittert was a foreign correspondent for four years in Jerusalem. He gives you an early look at tonight’s 7 p.m. ET show. Subscribe to War Notes here.  

America Set Free

Over the weekend I was playing golf with a good buddy:

• Someone in the group made a tame but off-color joke.
  • Everybody nervously chuckled – it was funny, but we’ve been scared to laugh for the past few years, lest the woke police cancel us. 
• Then he said, “Trump won, you can say that now.”
  • Everybody laughed with approval.
    • It is undeniably true – Trump’s election broke the eggshells we have all been walking on.
• As usual, my buddy Mike Allen’s morning note delivers the clear-eyed reality of a changed world – suddenly it’s OK to support Trump.
  • Spotted: MAGA hats in Beverly Hills and at brunch in Manhattan. 
• The media world is now abound with a few things.
  • Stories about Trump’s disastrous Cabinet picks.
    • News flash: America doesn’t care – more on that later.
• Stories about “the hidden Trump voter.”
  • Like “Family Ties” star Justine Bateman.
  • From the New York Times, as quoted by Axios, Annie Thoms, a high school teacher in Manhattan, says: “I feel gutted … I feel that my country and large parts of our city have betrayed ourselves and our children and our neighbors.”
  • Almost all of America shifted to the right in 2024, from rural South Dakota to Downtown Chicago.
    • Stunning stat: As Josh Kraushaar quotes of David Axelrod:
      • “There’s a precinct in the city of Chicago that represents only the Cook County jail. Joe Biden won 96% of the vote there in 2020… Donald Trump won that precinct, 49-47%.”

Missing the point: As usual, the D.C. media doesn’t get it.

• It’s not that Americans don’t care about Trump’s uniquely bad picks – they are glad he made them.
  • To them, it’s retribution for the same reporters and talking heads calling Trump voters racists, transphobic and “uneducated” garbage. 
• We told you over and over that people don’t like being ridiculed and worse.
  • Axios explains the backlash against “woke”.

Exposing the truth: Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski of “Morning Joe” made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to meet their old friend, turned “fascist Nazi”, and now frenemy Donald Trump.

• Yes, yes: Democrats never really thought Trump was a dictator, Nazi or fascist.
• More importantly: Their visit to Mar-a-Lago proves it was always about power.
  • Scarborough and Brzezinski went all in on everything anti-Trump and woke when it got them power. 
  • “Morning Joe” more than anything represents Democratic elites.
  • Now that “woke is broke,” Scarborough and Brzezinski are back kissing the ring. 

They don’t learn: “​​Trump is planting the seeds to his own demise,” writes David French in The New York Times.

• French writes, “The corrupt, incompetent and extremist men and women he’s appointing to many of the most critical posts in his Cabinet are direct threats to the well-being of the country, but they’re also political threats to Trump and to his populist allies.”
• David French and his friends might eventually be right.
  • But history tells us those predicting Trump’s political demise have not been right yet – and we’ve been through countless moments, where this is “it.”
  • Nothing kills Trump.
    • Not the indictments.
    • Not saying John McCain isn’t a war hero.
    • Not the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
    • Not appointing Pete Hegseth as the secretary of defense.
    • Not appointing Matt Gaetz as attorney general.

Zoom out: America is happy to not be walking on eggshells anymore. 

• The rest of America spent the past four years being told:
  • If you don’t want boys in girls’ sports, you are transphobic 
  • If you want a secure border, you are xenophobic 
  • If you don’t want to defund the police, you are racist 
  • If you don’t believe in unlimited aid to Ukraine, you are pro-Putin 
  • If you don’t want to get a vaccine, you are anti-science 
  • If you don’t want Trump locked up, you are anti-democracy 
• They are done with it, much like the moment that brought down McCarthy…
  • The emperor now has no clothes – the powerful or powerless.
    • Even Scarborough and Brzezinski went to Mar-a-Lago.
• Coming to grips: Leave it to Jen Psaki of MSNBC to miss the point.

Goodbye and Good Luck

President Biden just allowed Ukraine to use American missiles for strikes deep into Russia.

• Call it a parting gift to Trump that he will now have to deal with a far more complex war.
  • Elbridge Colby delivers a sobering assessment of the situation.
    • “It’s essential to understand that @POTUS @VP administration is leaving a *terrible situation* for @realDonaldTrump @JDVance.”

Wait, what? Just two months before he leaves office, President Biden is doing what he wouldn’t do for years because he said it would escalate the war in Russia.

• Ground truth: Russia is making real gains and Ukraine is running out of men and equipment to fight.
  • America is also running out of equipment to send them. 

Warning bells: Sweden hands out pamphlets explaining how to prepare for World War III. 

• Thought bubble: Few presidents get to decide what defines them – Trump’s second term will likely be defined by foreign policy.

Remember when: We told you over and over for the past year that President Biden’s weaknesses were and are provocative. It’s no surprise the world’s bad boys are getting in what they can right now.

Tune into “On Balance with Leland Vittert” weeknights at 7/6C on NewsNation. Find your channel here. 

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of NewsNation.