This is the Jan. 13, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.
“Pray without ceasing,” the Apostle Paul wrote in his first letter to the Thessalonians.
My New Year’s prayer for Donald Trump was that the president might be moved — somehow, someway — to become a peacemaker in America.
Not even two weeks into 2026, it’s clearly time to get back to praying.
The opening days of the new year have seen new levels of chaos and divisiveness out of the Oval Office, as Jonathan Lemire details in a new Atlantic article chronicling the administration’s erratic moves since Jan. 1.
American military forces were sent into Venezuela. Trump told me he planned to keep the oil.
The president let the world know that he was going to take Greenland “one way or another.”
The administration sent a surge of troops — not to Caracas or Nuuk, but to the Twin Cities of Minnesota, where a young mother was shot at point-blank range.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem responded by sending even more undertrained and unprepared agents to Minnesota.
Those troops have spent the past several days in Minneapolis bullying American citizens — even asking if they had “learned their lesson” from the killing of Renee Good.
The Trump administration then caused world markets to tremble by launching a criminal investigation against Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
Powell pushed back hard at the president, explaining how the Department of Justice witch hunt was no more than a method of intimidation to get him to lower interest rates.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called President Trump, complaining about the “mess” made by Powell’s investigation.
Meanwhile, as the president’s political team pushes out false propaganda about supporting law enforcement officers, their own website is polluted by a stew of disinformation and bile regarding the tragic events of Jan. 6, 2021.
The White House site makes no mention of the brave law enforcement officers battered and abused on Jan. 6 by rioters Trump would later praise and then pardon.
Grieving family members still blame the deaths of four police officers on those Jan. 6 convicts.
Is this Trump’s version of supporting cops?
Last week, the president told The New York Times he regretted not seizing voting machines following the 2020 election.
This is where the president says the quiet part out loud — and offers Democratic officials a clear warning of what he could do to rig the 2026 elections.
Be prepared.
The president also told the Times that civil rights laws allowing Black people to drink out of the same water fountains as whites, go to the same schools and colleges, benefit from the same fair housing laws, and lessen the sting of discrimination across America — after centuries of suffering under legally sanctioned discrimination — actually hurt white people.
It is hard to imagine anyone, let alone the president of the United States, possessing such a twisted view of American history. But sadly, this president does.
Maybe we should follow St. Ignatius of Loyola’s sage advice for changing the world: Pray as if there is no such thing as work, and work as if there is no such thing as prayer.
Thirteen days into the new year, it is time to do all we can to help elect candidates this fall who will follow the law, tell the truth, and work for peace, both at home and abroad.
“A mess.”
—Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to President Donald Trump, reportedly expressing frustration over the Justice Department’s investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell
THE NEW OLD AGE
“Life once followed a familiar pattern … retirement in your 60s and only a brief few ‘golden years.’ That assumption now looks like a relic,” writes Time’s Alice Park in the magazine’s cover story, “The New Old Age.”
Aging is no longer a quiet fade into the background — it’s a powerful force reshaping how we live, work, and imagine the span of a lifetime. The charts below trace just how quickly that transformation is taking hold.
SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control, AARP, Time magazine
For the full segment, watch below.
A CONVERSATION WITH JASON FURMAN
A bipartisan group of leading economists has issued a statement condemning the Justice Department’s investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, warning that the probe represents an unprecedented attempt to use prosecutorial power to undermine the central bank’s independence. Every living former Fed chair joined a bipartisan group of former Treasury secretaries and Council of Economic Advisers chairs in signing.
One of those signatories, Harvard University economist Jason Furman — former chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama — joined us on set this morning.
JS: Jason, thank you for being here. Why did you and the others feel it was important to issue this statement?
JF: Every six weeks, the Fed faces tough calls — whether to hold or move rates by 25 basis points. But this was an easy one: You simply don’t do this. Political interference in the Fed is what you see in countries like Argentina or Turkey, not the United States. That’s why it was so easy for so many of us to sign on.
Molly Jong-Fast: Jason, you wrote that this effort is self-defeating. Can you explain?
JF: Yes, and honestly I’ve been heartened because it hasn’t worked. We’ve seen near-universal backlash. Usually the country splits over issues like this, but this time, almost nobody is defending the president. People trust Jay Powell, who’s just doing his job to keep the economy stable. They don’t give the same benefit of the doubt to Donald Trump, who has repeatedly tried to interfere with the Fed.
John Heilemann: Jason, what has been the economic impact, and could this episode backfire on Trump by strengthening Powell’s position or resolve to stay on the Fed’s board?
JF: The markets dipped briefly on the news but quickly recovered, suggesting investors don’t think this move will go far. In fact, it may have the opposite effect — reinforcing Powell’s independence and credibility.
I do think he’s more likely to stay now. He could remain as one of 12 voting members, even if he’s no longer chair, and every vote matters. The real threat isn’t an immediate firing or indictment — that’s unlikely — but a gradual takeover of the Fed through new appointments. That’s the real long-term threat.
This conversation has been condensed and edited for brevity and clarity.
We Are the World (Cup)
A Personal History of the World’s Greatest Sporting Event
By Roger Bennett
Founder of The Men in Blazers media network
I was so proud to reveal the cover of my new book, “We Are the World (Cup)” on “Morning Joe” because the show has been such a huge part of my efforts to grow the sport in America.
I have been covering the Premier League with Joe and Mika since 2010. It is where I learned to master live television.
Joe glimpsed the sense of football’s growing power in America, and the book contains a slew of stories about my experiences with the “Morning Joe” family — from witnessing Mika knocking over a bar table with joy when Landon Donovan scored his famous 2010 World Cup goal to experiencing the legendary Tom Brokaw go from soccer sceptic to surging Premier League fan.
When you have Tom Brokaw in your corner, you know that soccer has truly captured America.
This is the one book you need to read to be 2026 tournament-ready — from Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” through Zinedine Zidane’s head-butt in Berlin, all the way to Lionel Messi’s epic Homeric odyssey to World Cup glory in 2022.
If you, or your friends, are World Cup curious, or football mad, I wrote this book for you. Grab your copy now wherever you buy books, and go, go USA. 🙏
“We Are the World (Cup)” will be released March 3.
EXTRA HOT TEA
Monica Mason pulled her wedding dress from its box on Christmas Day — almost 30 years after she first wore it — and her husband, a self-described “macho” military man, was moved to tears.
Daughter Emma Mason posted the clip to TikTok, where it quickly went viral. “I can seriously only remember one other time seeing him cry,” she said, adding that his reaction set off a wave of emotion through the entire room.
Asked what he was thinking, James Masondidn’t hesitate: He was back at the altar, watching his bride walk toward him and realizing, once again, “I get her for the rest of my life.”
ONE MORE SHOT
Rebecca Šramková of Slovakia serves in a tennis match earlier today in Hobart, Australia.
SPILL IT!
In the coming weeks, actor and comedian Sean Hayes will join us to discuss his new off-Broadway show, “The Unknown,” and actress and writer Jeanette McCurdy will join us to talk about her new novel, “Half His Age.”
Have a question for them? Ask here, and we may feature your question on the show.
CATCH UP ON MORNING JOE
Former Rep. Joe Scarborough, R-Fla., is co-host of MS NOW's "Morning Joe" alongside Mika Brzezinski — a show that Time magazine calls "revolutionary." In addition to his career in television, Joe is a two-time New York Times best-selling author. His most recent book is "The Right Path: From Ike to Reagan, How Republicans Once Mastered Politics — and Can Again."