Thursday, February 26, 2026
Good morning, and welcome to RedState's "Morning Minute" — a brief glimpse at which stories are trending at the moment and a look ahead at what the day may bring. Consider this your one-stop shop for news to kickstart your day.
TOP O' THE MORNIN'
Red-Hot at RedState
Perhaps I'm just being overly cynical, but there has been no publicly provided independent proof that Rahman is, in fact, disabled. Everything traces back to her own self-reported claims, which are then echoed verbatim by Omar and sympathetic media outlets.
What a Disgrace: 10 FBI Agents Get the Axe After Revelation That Bureau Spied on Patel, Wiles
It’s easy to become inured by all the stories of corruption and draconian overreach that went down while Ole Joe was president, but we shouldn’t let ourselves get complacent because they will resort to the exact same playbook if they retake the White House in 2028.
The Huge, Great, Terrific Story Behind the Rise of a Top Trump Impersonator
If there’s anyone who’d love to see a third Trump term, it would probably be Shawn Farash. That being said, he seems talented enough to find a way to success no matter who is president.
Trending Across Townhall Media
Bearing Arms — Washington Democrats Suspend Rules to Advance Gun Control Bills
At the moment, gun owners in the state have to pay $18 for the state police to run a background check. That figure could easily double under HB 2521, and with no cap whatsoever the state police could decide it costs even far more to conduct a check.
HotAir — Show Me Tha Money: Chicago Just Found Out It's Got Another Big Bill to Pay
And now that this county judge ruled that the city had overcharged drivers for these parking tickets for over a decade, it's a matter of deciding who gets a refund and for how much.
PJMedia — Ooooh, That Smell: The Smell of Death Surrounds the Democratic Party
If the Democratic Party wants to commit political autodarwinate, let them. We can't share a nation with these dotards anyway.
Townhall — And Now the US Women's Hockey Team Is Slapping Down the Silly Media Narrative About the Men's Team
They’re done being political. The USA won. America is back. And Donald Trump is still president. Can we crack on now? Because the number of idiots weighing in on something that they’re not qualified for is getting annoying.
Twitchy — Mullin to Bernie Sanders: 'What Have You Been Doing Your Whole Life?' — Viral Takedown Goes Nuclear
Good on Mullin for telling it like it is. We need more truth tellers in government.
WHAT'S ON TAP?
Today on Capitol Hill...
On Thursday, there are a handful of Senate hearings/meetings set:
- Senate Armed Services — Hearings to examine the nominations of Mark Ditlevson and Brian Birdwell to be Assistant Secretaries of Defense
- Senate Aging — Hearings to examine FDA bureaucracy, focusing on regulator to roadblock
- Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs — Hearings to examine an update from the Prudential regulators, focusing on rightsizing regulation to promote American opportunity
- Senate Foreign Relations — To receive a closed briefing on tech competition, critical minerals, and supply chain security
- Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions — Business meeting to consider multiple education, health, and discrimination bills and cybersecurity coordination
- Senate Judiciary — Business meeting to consider a slate of criminal child-protection laws, sentencing reforms, and multiple Department of Justice nominations
Wednesday's Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing for President Trump's nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Casey Means, got rather lively.
And...is there a SAVE America Act vote in the offing?
READ MORE: Dr. Casey Means Under the Microscope As Trump's Surgeon General Nominee Is Weighed in the Balance
Senate Majority Leader Thune to Force Vote on SAVE Act — and Put Dems on the Record
White House What's Up
President Trump has a busy Thursday on tap:
- 9:00 AM — THE PRESIDENT participates in Executive Time — The White House
- 11:00 AM — THE PRESIDENT receives his Intelligence Briefing — Oval Office
- 3:00 PM — THE PRESIDENT participates in a Private Meeting — Oval Office
And he's tapped Vice President JD Vance as the new Fraud Czar.
READ MORE: 'That Is Stopping Today': VP Vance, Dr. Oz Announce Pause in Medicaid Payments to MN Over Fraud
Additionally, today, Vice President JD Vance will visit a machining facility in Plover, Wisconsin, where he will deliver remarks celebrating the Trump Administration’s accomplishments following the President’s State of the Union address.
Keeping Up With the Cabinet
Sec. Health & Human Services - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — Kennedy continues to promote the MAHA agenda.
You should never have to fight the government while fighting for your child's life. We are cutting unnecessary red tape, aligning regulation with modern biology, and clearing a path for breakthrough treatments to reach the patients with rare diseases who need them most. pic.twitter.com/K3wCJjyWnY
— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) February 25, 2026
Full Court Press...
A handful of notable decisions of late:
❌ In Lazaro Maldonado Bautista v. Ernesto Santacruz Jr (habeas/immigration detention policy), Judge Sunshine Sykes (Central District of California) DENIES admin's motion for stay pending appeal.
❌ In Assoc. for Education Finance & Policy v. McMahon/National Academy of Education v. Dept. of Education (cancellation of contracts/RIF), Judge Trevor McFadden (D.C.) DENIES admin's motions to dismiss.
❌ In Lesly Miot v. Trump (TPS - Haiti), Judge Ana Reyes (D.C.) DENIES admin's motion to stay (her 2/2 order staying effective date of TPS designation termination).
SCOTUS handed down two more decisions on Wednesday — again, we'll have a full wrap-up of the Court's recent opinions in a Skinny on SCOTUS installment. And next week, there's another round of oral arguments.
COMING ATTRACTIONS
On Monday:
First Lady Melania Trump is set to make history at the United Nations, taking the gavel as the United States assumes the Security Council Presidency to emphasize education’s role in advancing tolerance and world peace.
Mrs. Trump’s leadership will mark the first time a sitting U.S. First Lady presides over the Security Council as members consider education, technology, peace, and security.
MORNING MUSING
We've seen plenty of observations about what a difference a president makes – contrasting President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden couldn't be much easier. But we don't hear quite as much about the contrast between Vice President JD Vance and his predecessor, Kamala Harris.
With Trump's tapping Vance to serve as the Fraud Czar, we have a golden opportunity to do just that. Right off the bat, Vance held a press conference, accompanied by Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Dr. Mehmet Oz, and made no bones about what they aim to do.
I was trying to remember what Harris did after she was tapped to be the Border Czar. Well, here's a hint (an article written two weeks after Harris was designated for the role):
So, Vice President Harris must have been pretty busy in the last two weeks. Except, recent reports suggest that not to have been the case.
The Daily Mail reported on April 7 that the vice president has not actually been to the border in the past fortnight (despite spending five days this month in her home state of California, which is a border state), “or even h[e]ld a press conference about her new duties in the two weeks since being tasked with addressing the migrant crisis”.
She did have a phone call with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on March 30, in which Harris “reaffirmed the administration’s commitment to working together and expanding partnerships to benefit the people of the region” and “discussed the significant risks to those leaving their homes and making the dangerous journey to the United States, especially during a global pandemic”.
...
The White House readout of that March 4 call ended: “Both Presidents agreed for their respective teams to meet in the coming weeks to develop an effective and humane plan of action to manage migration.” It does not seem like there was a lot of planning in advance of Harris’s March 30 call, although “The Vice President ... thanked President Giammattei for his efforts to secure Guatemala’s southern border.”
Remarkable. Stunning. Needless to say, the situation didn't improve from there. And anyone who wasn't residing under a rock knows what the border was like during the Biden/Harris tenure. It was so bad that during the 2024 presidential election, Dems and the legacy media tried to gaslight us and assert that Harris was not, in fact, the "Border Czar" — ostensibly because she wasn't officially handed that title.
I don't care what you call Vance's new role. I'm anxious to see results. And something tells me, this will be a prime example of the stunning contrast between these two veeps.
LIGHTER FARE
My cup runneth under...
Mood..🐈🐾😅 pic.twitter.com/rMilPpi0Ae
— 𝕐o̴g̴ (@Yoda4ever) February 25, 2026
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