Rep.-elect Lawler: GOP can’t allow ‘a handful of people’ to upend McCarthy’s speaker bid

Hours before he is expected to speak at a Turning Point USA gathering in Mississippi, Vice President JD Vance did not get a vote of confidence from one White House insider.

According to a report from MSNBC’s Jake Traylor, Donald Trump's MAGA heir-apparent will attempt to step into the shoes of the late TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk by giving a speech and then taking questions at the SJB Pavilion on the University of Mississippi campus.

As Traylor wrote, Vance will attempt to mimic Kirk’s appearances on college campuses that came to an abrupt end during a visit to Utah Valley University.

The report notes that Vance’s performance will be “graded” against how Kirk was received, and there is some trepidation at the White House about whether he will pull it off.

With Traylor writing, “He will try to avoid the potential pitfalls that accompany an unpredictable, live college debate format that could lead to him seeming to diminish the office he now holds. And he will try to not be too obvious in his angling for a 2028 presidential bid,” one White House official attempted to downplay expectations by admitting, “There’s tons of risks.”

Vance has claimed, “I’m going to do exactly what Charlie did. {Kirk] would answer tough questions from the left and from the right, and so I want to do that, too,” which has MSNBC reporting, “White House officials and people close to Vance caution that simply playing Kirk may do more harm than good.”

”[Charlie] had unique skills,” one person admitted. “Vance can be an awkward guy on stage. He’s not going to be what Kirk was, he’s just different from that.”

According to the report, for Vance to advance his hopes of replacing Trump, he needs to get organizations like TPUSA on his side.

To political observers, "his proximity to Turning Point in recent weeks highlights his growing alliance with the powerhouse youth group amid early speculation of his own 2028 presidential run,” MSNBC is reporting.

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The Wall Street Journal took President Donald Trump to task in a new editorial accusing him of throwing a "tantrum" over the Ronald Reagan-themed tariff ad.

The post The Wall Street Journal Mocks Trump Over Reagan Tariff Ad ‘Tantrum’ first appeared on Mediaite.

Former Republican Tim Miller, who hosts a podcast for the conservative anti-Trump news outlet The Bulwark, discussed with MSNBC host and former Republican Nicolle Wallace that the GOP is stiffing its own voters with slashes to food stamp benefits.

"I know food stamps is like a 90s era right-wing racist smear, but SNAP, which is sort of the new EBT — this is food assistance. [It] knows no partisan affiliation. If anything, it disproportionately benefits households in Trump voting counties and districts," said Wallace. "And it feeds a whole lot of kids who don't have any responsibility for any of the political decisions that adults make."

Miller noted that the GOP's rhetoric has clearly shifted from the days of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Mitt Romney (R-UT).

"But the policies are harmful to them. And this ... the expiration of SNAP — or the fact that they're not going to continue funding SNAP during this shutdown, beginning this weekend, I think is the most acute example of this, where, you know, if the party had fully switched to being a multiracial, multiethnic, working class party like they pay lip service to, this would be an emergency right now," said Miller.

The situation would involve Republican lawmakers fearful "our own voters are literally going to go hungry beginning this weekend. You know, we need to serve to service them. And meanwhile, Donald Trump's in China or in Korea getting a, you know, Burger King happy meal crown from the head of South Korea. And Congress isn't even in session, right? Like they're not doing anything."

He called it a catastrophe and a tragedy if the problem isn't fixed in the coming days.

"But it's also a very stark demonstration of just how this kind of MAGA populism is a lot of lip service and not a lot of action," Miller continued. "And you're seeing it in real time also in the states where, you know, in Colorado, Jared Polis and some other states, governors, mostly Democratic governors, are working to try to patch this right now. And in some of the red states, it's not going to get patched."

When it was his turn to praise Donald Trump, Stephen Miller took the rhetoric up a notch, telling the president, "This country was going to die without you."

The post Stephen Miller Literally Tells Trump ‘This Country Was Going to Die Without You’ first appeared on Mediaite.