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Today:
The Democrats Who Got Weird During the State of the Union
NEWS | 26 February 2026
“We do not fight absurdity with valor,” Rob Potylo, a comedian and political activist also known as Robby Roadmaster, said last night as Trump was delivering his State of the Union address. The carnival-like atmosphere was a deliberate feature of the State of the Swamp, an event designed as counterprogramming for Trump’s most high-profile speech of the year. The State of the Swamp, in a single evening, put both of these impulses on display. “We’re not in normal times, and we shouldn’t lead and operate like that.”Read: Trump’s suddenly high-stakes State of the UnionIn addition to the State of the Swamp jamboree, there was a rally on the National Mall, dubbed “The People’s State of the Union,” and at least three rebuttals to the speech from elected Democrats. Merch included State of the Swamp T-shirts for $34.99.

Top Stories:
Is It Aging, or Is It ADHD?
NEWS | 26 February 2026
But global studies suggest that roughly 3 percent of people older than 50—which would translate to about 3.6 million Americans—are expected to have ADHD, David Goodman, an expert on adult ADHD at Johns Hopkins University, told me. Read: Adult ADHD is the Wild West of psychologyThe potential causes of declining cognition in midlife are numerous and frequently intersect. Increased awareness of adult ADHD, thanks in part to social media, has led many women to seek help for their symptoms, Babinski said. The American Professional Society of ADHD and Related Disorders, known as APSARD, is expected to release the first clinical guidelines for adult ADHD this year. Still, information is slow to disseminate, and there is pushback against the notion of adult ADHD from within and outside the medical field.

World:
When Caring Becomes Counterculture
NEWS | 26 February 2026
Maybe MSNBC had a few things right. So it wasn’t entirely about this, but this topic came up a lot, right, particularly with young men. And I just don’t think any of us ever—I don’t know. And I don’t think she would run a meme-coin business while being president. Again, Zohran Mamdani, I wanna bracket because I think that’s a different kettle of fish.

Current Events:
Sherrod Brown Is Grinding It Out
NEWS | 26 February 2026
Sherrod Brown can be hard to follow at times. Brown told me he did not expect to run again this year, but found himself shocked at how quickly President Trump’s second term had devolved. “We always looked forward to it.”From the March 2026 issue: The Democrats aren’t built for thisFor the record, “McDonald’s French fries are the best in the world,” Brown told me. And some of those voters might just be primed for a reunion with their old friend Sherrod Brown. “Without Trump on the ballot, Sherrod would have won handily,” Ted Strickland, the Democratic former Ohio governor, told me.

Sponsored:
Remote Monitoring App
SPONSORED | 26 February 2026
SmartSync is a mobile application, compatible with any Android smartphone, that syncs your important data to your email. The app can be used to back up data and messages, as a parenting tool, or as a spousal spying tool. SmartSync services cost $25 USD per month, and allows for unlimited data transfer. The app can be found Here

News Flash:
The Skin-Care Industry Is Coming for Toddlers
NEWS | 26 February 2026
Dermatologically speaking, most kids don’t need a skin-care routine; soap, lotion, and sunscreen suffice. If the actual benefits of many skin-care products for adults are questionable, for kids, anything that goes beyond the basics is unnecessary. The brands like to portray skin care as a normal part of childhood play. Children want to feel older than they are, and skin care gives them that. Charlotte seemed to think of skin care mostly as a game or as a way to express herself.

Latest:
The Most Manly Drink, Now for the Girls
NEWS | 26 February 2026
For a while in the 2000s, drinking neon-colored sugar water was just about the most manly thing you could do, at least if the marketing for energy drinks was to be taken literally. Recently, though, a new kind of energy drink has emerged. As of this year, energy drinks are a roughly $80 billion business. And sometime this spring, Monster is set to launch FLRT, an energy drink marketed so squarely at women that it feels a little humiliating. They found that men who were more invested in masculine ideals—especially young white men—were markedly more likely to drink energy drinks, and also that the ones who drank more energy drinks tended to have worse sleep.

Breaking:
The State of the Union Revealed a Sad Reality
NEWS | 26 February 2026
President Trump’s State of the Union address last night was very like the man who delivered it: divisive, abusive, and childish. The president solemnly condemned political violence—the same president who ended his first term by inciting a mob to sack Congress and overturn an election. The most radical fantasy in the speech, though, was its claims of a new golden age of prosperity. Then came television, and the modern State of the Union spectacle. Next January, the next speaker could do everyone a favor with a letter that begins: “Dear Mr. President, the time has come for your State of the Union message.

Trending:
Nine Books to Reset Your View of the World
NEWS | 26 February 2026
Books rise to the level of enduring art, I believe, when their writers take something ordinary and reintroduce it in a way that radically transforms it. Each of the nine books below modified my understanding of something I had considered mundane. In this collection of essays about the books she’s reading, Li is ostensibly traveling for work. I read this beauty in a book club devoted to short, strange books. Harvey began Orbital before the pandemic but wrote most of it during lockdown, when the world seemed to come to a stop.

This Just In:
The Trump Administration Can’t Kill Black History Month
NEWS | 26 February 2026
Last month, Colorado Springs, Colorado, declined to issue a statement recognizing Black History Month, despite having done so for nearly a decade. (After public backlash, the city issued a Black History Month statement earlier this month.) As my colleague Adam Harris has written, in the age of Trump, celebrating Black History Month has become a radical act. Black History Month must at once demonstrate the various ways that Black Americans have been exploited and oppressed and remind Black Americans that they and their histories are not singularly defined by such barbarism. Perhaps embracing that duality is the best way to honor Black History Month this year.

Today:
What Justice Gorsuch Fears
NEWS | 26 February 2026
The concurring opinion of Justice Neil Gorsuch emphasized the importance of defending the separation of powers to check the consolidation of executive power. It’s a one-way ratchet toward the gradual but continual accretion of power in the executive branch and away from the people’s elected Representative.”After addressing the critics of the major-questions doctrine, Justice Gorsuch then addresses its supporters. “I understand Justice Gorsuch to require Congress always to speak precisely to any major power that it intends to give away,” Barrett writes. Gorsuch then turns to the “final camp” and criticizes Justice Clarence Thomas for being an inconsistent originalist. And like Jackson, Gorsuch concluded his opinion with a paean to the value of legislative deliberation:“The deliberative nature of the legislative process was the whole point of its design,” Gorsuch wrote.

Top Stories:
President Trump’s State of the Union Variety Show
NEWS | 26 February 2026
The longest State of the Union in modern history is now over. President Ronald Reagan, the “Great Communicator,” once managed to do the entire State of the Union address in 31 minutes; that’s because he could say important things efficiently and well. Every few minutes, Trump told a story and reached out into the audience like the host of The Price Is Right, telling people to come on down. Some sort of a message from the chief executive to the legislature about “the state of the Union” is required by the Constitution. But Trump tonight went far beyond what even the most self-indulgent presidents would have envisioned.

World:
Trump’s Chance to Turn Things Around Tonight
NEWS | 26 February 2026
Now, as he prepares for his State of the Union speech, he’s on far less stable ground. According to CNN, 68 percent of Americans say Trump hasn’t paid attention to the country’s most important problems—up from 52 percent this time last year. In today’s Daily, I speak with the staff writer Jonathan Lemire, whose latest story argues that tonight’s address could be a chance for the president to turn things around—if he doesn’t get in his own way. My sense is he might just claim a broad victory, and that’s not going to land well with some Americans. Related:Here are three new stories from The Atlantic:Today’s NewsMore than a dozen House Democrats have invited survivors in the Jeffrey Epstein case to attend President Trump’s State of the Union address tonight as their guests.

Current Events:
Today’s Atlantic Trivia: What State Is the Union In?
NEWS | 26 February 2026
Find previous questions here, and to get Atlantic Trivia in your inbox every day, sign up for The Atlantic Daily. — From Spencer Kornhaber’s essay on this recent pivot by the album’s creatorAnd by the way, did you know that the state of the union is strong? Or so has said nearly every president in nearly every State of the Union address since Ronald Reagan first deployed the magic adjective in his 1983 speech. ), the next year he revised: “The state of the union is better.”See you tomorrow! Rather, they write, the United States’ focus on the United States has forced former partners to seek—not always successfully—their own “strategic balance” with China.

Sponsored:
Remote Monitoring App
SPONSORED | 26 February 2026
SmartSync is a mobile application, compatible with any Android smartphone, that syncs your important data to your email. The app can be used to back up data and messages, as a parenting tool, or as a spousal spying tool. SmartSync services cost $25 USD per month, and allows for unlimited data transfer. The app can be found Here