The Mark Thompson Show

As Republican midterm prospects look more dire, top GOP leaders are turning up the heat with more aggressive rhetoric. Trump and his allies are attacking Democratic candidates—from mocking names and questioning who "looks American" to reviving racially charged talking points about immigrants. Both Michigan's Abdul El-Sayed and Texas's James Talarico are taking major campaign trail bullying. It goe...

President Trump's controversial new energy agreement with Russia is already dividing lawmakers and world leaders. Trump announced a massive diesel deal that will bring 300,000 tons of Russian fuel into the U.S. market immediately, with another 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons after that. The stated goal is to ease global energy costs, but the reaction has been anything but smooth. Ukrai...

We have a captivating pre-recorded show on this holiday. It's Indigenous People's Day for some and for others Columbus Day. Trump falls into the Columbus Day category -  issuing a proclamation defending Christopher Columbus from "a vicious and merciless campaign to erase our history, slander our heroes, and attack our heritage." It's not the first time Trump has made such a proclamation. Mark will...

Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers faced off in a heated debate over the Iran war, gas prices, health care and tariffs. The Michigan Senate candidates traded attacks over their political positions in a race that could help decide control of the Senate. Over at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wants the man who killed 13 people at the Fort Hood military base to be killed by a firing squa...

Trump returns to Texas to rally behind Ken Paxton, whose Senate race is tighter than Republicans expected. With Paxton privately voicing concerns about Trump’s impact on the campaign, the visit could test whether the president can energize voters or deepen the party’s political tension. The rally yesterday in Texas was chaotic and full of protests causing Trump to step away from the podium at one...

Trump says U.S. poverty is at an historic low—but that doesn’t mean life feels affordable. From rent and groceries to health care and childcare, many Americans still struggle to cover the basics. We look at the gap between poverty statistics and the cost of living ahead of the midterms. Guest today include: John Rothmann. He is a presidential historian and host of the podcast ‘Around the Political...

Jaw dropping behavior by Trump at a rally in Grand Island, Nebraska yesterday. He brought aide Natalie Harp (nicknamed the “Human Printer”) on stage to hand him an executive order allowing tax-free purchases of red-dyed diesel. He signed it, tossed his pen into the crowd, then compared Harp’s entrance to perfect people on The Price Is Right, joking that they should take the whole thing on televisi...

With just four weeks until Election Day, Republicans are in a bad spot trying to defend states Trump won by huge margins just two years ago. The polling shows Democrats leading in races that should be safe GOP strongholds. Latino voter shifts are catching Republicans offguard. GOP messaging on the economy is not landing with voters. Add to this, high gas prices are becoming a major liability, and...

For an American president who supposedly hates communists so much that he is spending money to advertise against the dangers of such ideology, he sure seems to like pictures of himself with communist leaders. MS NOW’s Jacqueline Alemany is sharing images from the Palm Room at the White House showing gold framed photos of Trump with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin pro...

Elon Musk is back in government. The SpaceX CEO has been tapped to co-lead Project Meridian, a new Department of Defense initiative studying the future of warfare. He's joined by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Palmer Luckey of defense tech company Anduril. The project runs 120 days and will deliver a public report with their recommendations on achieving "absolute technological dominance on...

Bernie Sanders is ramping up his midterm efforts with a major cash injection into races he cares about. After raising $2.8 million for his preferred candidates this cycle, Sanders is now putting hundreds of thousands of dollars directly toward key campaigns, including Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota's Senate race, Angie Nixon in Florida, and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's reelecti...

President Trump just signed off on sweeping import restrictions on Canadian goods, and they're taking effect tonight at midnight ET (September 29, 2026). From whiskey to the whey protein in your favorite supplement to motorcycles,we’ll look at what Canada's saying about retaliation, how Trump’s trade war will raise prices for Americans yet again and why trade talks between the U.S. and Canada are...

A strange Trump ad caught football fans by surprise. The taxpayer-funded advertisement aired during NFL games this past Sunday, appearing in commercial breaks of the Seahawks versus Commanders and Browns versus Panthers matchups. The spot shows Trump walking through a hallway declaring "this is the final battle" while his voiceover states he'll "cast out the communists, Marxists, and fascists" and...

Some of Trump's advisers are pushing him to intervene in federal elections. According to The Atlantic, Peter Ticktin, a longtime Trump associate wants him to consider extraordinary measures before the midterm elections. How much influence Ticktin has remain s to be seen ? We have seen Trump’s repeated calls for greater federal control over elections, election-fraud conspiracies and voter restricti...

With the midterms just weeks away, Republican candidates are making a strategic pivot and it's pretty telling. Trump's approval rating is below 40%, with some polls putting it closer to 30%. His policies aren't polling great either. Half of Americans think his deportation agenda goes too far, and even his own MAGA base is getting tired of his foreign policy moves. So what are GOP candidates doing?...

Today's Guests Links Prof. David Cay Johnston at RIT, Pulitzer Prize winning Author & Investigative Journalist  https://bsky.app/profile/davidcayjohnston.bsky.social https://substack.com/@davidcayjohnston Dmitri Mehlhorn https://www.dmitrimehlhorn.com The dirty commie rhetoric was put away for a time while President Trump met with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani at Gracie Mansion. The surpr...

The whole world can see Trump trying to control information about his presidency. We know from history that... "When empires or authoritarian regimes are under threat or fall, it's common for the press to become an early casualty. Controlling the flow of information is crucial for those in power, and when that power is challenged, media censorship, suppression, or manipulation often intensifies."...

Republicans are facing a difficult midterm balancing act: embrace Donald Trump to energize the MAGA base and access his massive campaign war chest, or keep their distance as his approval ratings fall and some of his policies become political liabilities. We look at why vulnerable GOP candidates are divided over Trump’s involvement, and what that tension could mean for the party’s chances in Novemb...

Senator Mitch McConnell returned to the Senate Agriculture Committee for a vote on the Farm Bill, but confusion arose when his name was called. After aides and fellow Republicans appeared to prompt him, his name had to be repeated twice before he slightly raised a finger and quietly said “aye.” The moment added to concerns about the 84-year-old senator’s health following his 92-day absence from Ca...

Vice President JD Vance spoke at a closed-door House Republican conference meeting on Capitol Hill, urging lawmakers to target Democratic candidates such as Abdul El-Sayed and James Talarico. Critics condemned his advice as an embrace of racist fearmongering. The discussion also focused on voters’ economic frustrations ahead of the midterms. We welcome presidential historian John Rothmann to the s...

The US Supreme Court is blocking a Trump administration rule that would have restricted mail voting ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, and voting rights advocates are celebrating the win. The postal service rule, by presidential executive order, would have given the executive branch unprecedented control over how Americans vote by mail and let the Postal Service refuse to send ballots to voters....

Donald Trump is pushing back against calls for stricter AI guardrails, calling them part of a “sick conspiracy” against the industry and data centers. As concerns grow over AI’s potential risks, Trump, discounting warnings of the demise of humanity from AI industry leaders, says the U.S. must keep moving fast to stay ahead of China. Guests today include: Emmy award winning news anchor David Shuste...