作者： root

Ranking the 2028 Republican presidential contenders

February 27, 2026 at 5:00 a.m. EST | The Washington Post

Most are all-in on MAGA.

(Illustration by Lucy Naland/The Washington Post; Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post; Maxine Wallace/The Washington Post; Tom Brenner/For The Washington Post; Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post; Evan Vucci/AP; iStock)

Analysis by Amber Phillips

Who is going to lead the Republican Party after a decade of President Donald Trump?

The Republican Party is grappling with that question now. After Trump reimagined conservatism and won the White House twice, it’s likely the next leader of the GOP will keep MAGA values. This month, a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll found that 71 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents think GOP leaders should follow in Trump’s mold.

Here is how the early field is taking shape for the 2028 Republican primaries. This is our second ranking; here’s the first. (Here are Democrats’ rankings.)

It’s early, and we leave room for surprises because — as some strategists have noted — at this time in the 2024 campaign, many Republicans had soured on Trump. We’ll revisit these rankings again soon; let us know what you think?

The standouts

Vice President JD Vance: Vance has hewed close to Trump.

He has defended the administration’s policies, even when doing so requires him to reverse some of his positions. And he has an aggressive, combative style: He brushed off a raging debate in his party about conspiracy theorists as a “purity test,” curses at his critics, and dismissed anger over Trump sharing a racist video that depicted Michelle and Barack Obama as apes.

Follow Trump’s second term

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At the State of the Union on Tuesday, Trump announced Vance was leading a “war” on fraud that the president said was being perpetrated by immigrants.

Vance is a divisive figure; when he recently went to the Olympics in Italy, he was jeered at times. But Republican voters seem to like what they are seeing: In a September YouGov poll, Vance topped the list of 2028 candidates Republicans said would consider voting for. His future in GOP politics could be a long one. At 41, he’s the youngest candidate on this list and one of the youngest vice presidents in history.

Marco Rubio:Trump’s secretary of state has put a condition on any possible presidential bid. “If JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee,” he told Vanity Fair last year, “and I’ll be one of the first people to support him.”

But some Republicans aren’t convinced that he’s sitting it out, even if Vance were to run.

“Vance and Rubio are the one-two punch of the Republican universe,” said Stan Barnes, a former GOP state senator in Arizona and political consultant. “I do not think anyone else can compete.”

Rubio has presided over major international developments, like Gaza peace talks and ousting Venezuela’s president. Trump assigned him to help “run” that South American country. Rubio has held additional jobs at various times during the second Trump administration, including national security adviser and USAID director.

Trump frequently mentions him as a successor: “Marco’s great,” Trump said, adding of Vance and Rubio: “I’m not sure if anybody would run against those two. I think if they formed a group, it would be unstoppable.”

The middle of the pack

Ted Cruz:The Texas senator, who has run for president before, appears to be positioning himself as an alternative to Vance. While Vance says all views in the party should be welcome, Cruz is advocating for his party to ostracize MAGA pundit Tucker Carlson for interviewing a white nationalist who has said Adolf Hitler is “cool.”

“Every one of us has an obligation to stand up and stay it is wrong,” Cruz said.

He has also criticized the Trump administration occasionally, calling its pressure campaign to cancel late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s show “dangerous as hell.” He has warned against Trump’s tariffs and recently said he couldn’t support one of the president’s picks for ambassador. Behind closed doors, he’s said Vance’s foreign policy views are dangerously isolationist.

Pete Hegseth: Trump’s defense secretary had a rough first year: He shared national security information with family, and a journalist was accidentally added to a group chat about a military operation. (An independent watchdog said Hegseth “created a risk to operational security” by using the app Signal for the operation.)

Pentagon leadership seems constantly in turmoil, with ousted officials sometimes criticizing Hegseth. He’s trying to boost the military budget by 50 percent, an increase so huge that some defense officials say they wouldn’t know how to spend it all. He distanced himself from a September boat strike that also killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage, which military experts say may constitute a war crime. His effort to punish Sen. Mark Kelly, a retired Navy captain, over a video failed — and was widely seen as giving the Arizona Democrat a launchpad for his own presidential ambitions.

However, Hegseth still has Trump’s support and remains a popular figure on the far right.

“We don’t trust in woke,” he said recently. “We trust in God.”

Kristi L. Noem: Trump’s head of homeland security is the unapologetic face of the president’s unpopular tactics to deport undocumented immigrants. She has transformed a department once focused on terrorism to be almost entirely about immigration enforcement, sometimes pushing things too far for the White House’s comfort: She elevated the far-right figure Greg Bovino to lead a deportation surge in Minnesota, only to have Trump replace him after two U.S. citizens were killed on his watch.

Noem was quick to blame the victims, despite video contradicting her claims; Trump softened his own language on what happened. The White House also recently stepped in to stop her plan to suspend TSA PreCheck.

But Noem, like Hegseth, has Trump’s support. And Democrats are calling for her impeachment, which may only serve to bolster her MAGA credentials.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr:Kennedy, Trump’s health secretary —who ran for president himself in 2024 — has roiled American public health. Former surgeons general who served in administrations of both parties warned he’s a danger, as he rolls back vaccine recommendations for children, a policy that is broadly unpopular. But Kennedy is influencing the Republican Party and its leaders. Trump now regularly shares unfounded vaccine skepticism, and Kennedy has his own base in the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) movement.

Ron DeSantis: Florida’s fiery, socially conservative governor is also a candidate whom Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say they’d like to see in a primary, according to the YouGov poll. DeSantis ran against Trump in the 2024 primaries and remains a fixture on Fox News and at conservative events. His run as governor ends in 2027, so he would have time to build momentum for a presidential run while out of public office.

Donald Trump Jr.:Trump’s eldest son has never held public office, but he is an adviser and confidant to his father. He seems to be making the case that he’s the rightful heir to the MAGA throne, saying recently of his desire to run: “That calling is there.”

The dark horses

Governors and senators:They’re not as high profile as members of Trump’s administration, but Republican governors like Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin (who left office last month), Georgia’s Brian Kemp (who has pushed back on Trump’s claims about the 2020 election in his state)and Arkansas’ Sarah Huckabee Sanders (a former White House press secretary) are being watched by political insiders.

In the Senate, Cruz is getting a lot of attention, but Republicans say not to count out potential runs by Sen. Rand Paul (Kentucky), a Trump critic on spending, Sen. Tim Scott (South Carolina) or others.

Trump himself? Trump has said he’d “love to” run for a third term. He can’t, though, because a president cannot serve more than two terms. “The Constitution is very clear about that,” said Josh Chafetz, a constitutional law expert at Georgetown University. Even if he wanted to start a constitutional crisis to stay in power, Trump may not have the backing of some of his most loyal supporters in Congress.

“It’s pretty clear,” Trump told reporters after talking privately with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) about this. “I’m not allowed to run.”

Plus, he will be 82 in 2028. But Trump’s musings about another term aren’t something to entirely discount, as he pushes to amass presidential power in a way no modern president has.

Mike Pence or another not-quite-MAGA candidate:Trump’s former vice president briefly ran in 2024 as an alternative to Trump but quickly dropped out. He has said he doesn’t plan to run, but he is amassing power at his think tank that could influence the race. Republican strategists expect someone in his mold, like Utah Gov. Spencer Cox — or perhaps former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley — to run as an alternative to Trumpism.

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民调：美民众对巴勒斯坦同情度首超以色列

发布时间 / 来源：2026年2月27日 19:13 / 联合早报

加沙战火重塑民意。民调显示，美民众对巴勒斯坦人同情度首超以色列。图为加沙迪尔巴拉以北的努赛赖特难民营。 （法新社）

最新民调显示，在加沙战争造成严重破坏之后，美国民众对巴勒斯坦人的同情度，首次超过对以色列的同情度。

法新社报道，盖洛普星期五（2月27日）公布的调查结果显示，41%的美国人更同情巴勒斯坦人，36%支持以色列，其余受访者未表态，或称同时支持双方，或两者皆不支持。

虽然两者差距在统计上并不显著，但这已是以色列20多年来在盖洛普同类调查中首次未能居于同情度榜首。一年前，以色列仍以46%对33%的支持率领先。

中东议题在美国国内呈现明显党派分化。过去一年态度变化，主要源于独立选民对以色列的支持度下降。在独立选民中，支持巴勒斯坦人的比例高出支持以色列11个百分点。

共和党人仍强烈支持以色列，70%受访者站在以色列一方，不过这一比例较10年前已下降约10个百分点。

民主党人对以色列的观感则日益负面。

10年前，以色列总理内坦亚胡曾就伊朗问题公开反对时任美国总统奥巴马的外交政策，此后双方关系趋于紧张。近年以色列政治光谱明显右移，加上哈马斯于2023年10月7日发动袭击后，以色列对加沙展开大规模军事行动，一些民主党选民批评美国前总统拜登未能更有力制约以色列。

在最新调查中，65%的民主党人表示更同情巴勒斯坦人，仅17%支持以色列。

本次民调于2月2日至16日，通过电话访问1001名美国成年人。

民调：美民众对巴勒斯坦同情度首超以色列

发布时间 / 来源

加沙战火重塑民意。民调显示，美民众对巴勒斯坦人同情度首超以色列。图为加沙迪尔巴拉以北的努赛赖特难民营。 （法新社）

最新民调显示，在加沙战争造成严重破坏之后，美国民众对巴勒斯坦人的同情度，首次超过对以色列的同情度。

法新社报道，盖洛普星期五（2月27日）公布的调查结果显示，41%的美国人更同情巴勒斯坦人，36%支持以色列，其余受访者未表态，或称同时支持双方，或两者皆不支持。

虽然两者差距在统计上并不显著，但这已是以色列20多年来在盖洛普同类调查中首次未能居于同情度榜首。一年前，以色列仍以46%对33%的支持率领先。

中东议题在美国国内呈现明显党派分化。过去一年态度变化，主要源于独立选民对以色列的支持度下降。在独立选民中，支持巴勒斯坦人的比例高出支持以色列11个百分点。

共和党人仍强烈支持以色列，70%受访者站在以色列一方，不过这一比例较10年前已下降约10个百分点。

民主党人对以色列的观感则日益负面。

10年前，以色列总理内坦亚胡曾就伊朗问题公开反对时任美国总统奥巴马的外交政策，此后双方关系趋于紧张。近年以色列政治光谱明显右移，加上哈马斯于2023年10月7日发动袭击后，以色列对加沙展开大规模军事行动，一些民主党选民批评美国前总统拜登未能更有力制约以色列。

在最新调查中，65%的民主党人表示更同情巴勒斯坦人，仅17%支持以色列。

本次民调于2月2日至16日，通过电话访问1001名美国成年人。

Everyone has something to say at the Supreme Court. Why the tariffs ruling had more than 160 pages

By [Joan Biskupic], CNN Chief Supreme Court Analyst
3 hr ago
PUBLISHED Feb 27, 2026, 4:00 AM ET

The extraordinary number of dueling opinions in the Supreme Court’s tariff case, [laying bare divisions among the justices], also became the basis for a punch line.

At the courtroom lectern this week in a dispute between an energy-pipeline company and the state of Michigan, lawyer John Bursch contended his position could lead to an easy decision: “I mean, it could be an opinion that’s 160 pages less than the tariffs opinion last week.”

“Well,” said Justice Samuel Alito as he and other justices began laughing, “That’s certainly a goal to aim for.”

Chief Justice John Roberts’ face brightened, and he appeared especially amused as the exchange played out. Roberts had [written the court’s main opinion] striking down the Trump administration tariffs, then waited weeks as colleagues finished their various additional opinions.

The seven separate opinions in the [Learning Resources v. Trump] tariffs case demonstrated how a case can become a forum for airing larger doctrinal differences.

Or, sometimes, the justices simply want to vent.

The result can be a lack of clarity in the law as the general public, along with lawyers and judges, navigate competing views.

The number of concurrences – writings by a justice who signs onto the majority’s bottom-line but adds a separate angle – has been rising at the contemporary court. That’s a reflection of increased polarization and shows that justices within the standard conservative and liberal blocs often splinter in their legal reasoning and approach.

Roberts’ opinion for the majority in the tariffs dispute was an efficient 21 pages. The principal dissenting opinion, written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, stretched to 63 pages. But then four other justices, who’d sided with Roberts, wrote concurring opinions: Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The most expansive came from Gorsuch, at 46 pages. Clarence Thomas added a separate dissenting opinion.

The writings totaled 164 pages, with another six for the accompanying syllabus.

“I felt very left out in the tariffs case,” Alito told Bursch drolly. “Justice Sotomayor didn’t write and I didn’t write.”

Rejoined Sonia Sotomayor, as the others chuckled, “Maybe we’ll have a chance here.”

Quips aside, the competing views in the dispute over Trump’s assertion of unilateral power for tariffs on foreign goods surprised the legal community.

“I was struck with just how many and how long the separate opinions were,” said University of Pennsylvania law professor Jean Galbraith. “Justice Gorsuch’s opinion was notable for pointedly throwing down the gauntlet, at his colleagues, which had the effect making all of them feel they had to write more in response.”

Why justices are writing more

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In prior decades, justices tended to write concurring opinions to make clear the limits of a majority ruling, said Galbraith, an international law scholar who earlier served as a law clerk to the late Justice John Paul Stevens.

“Concurrences these days are often being used for big brush strokes,” she said, “for laying out and defending broad judicial philosophies. That’s what was going on in the tariff opinions.”

The extended debate in Learning Resources v. Trump concerned modes of statutory interpretation more than the nuts-and-bolts of tariff policy. Such seemingly abstract differences can often consume the members of the country’s highest court more than which side wins or loses.

Similarly, in a 2024 dispute over the Second Amendment, the justices by an 8-1 vote (Thomas dissented) [upheld a federal law] prohibiting individuals subject to a restraining order for domestic violence from possessing a gun. Then, in addition to Roberts’ opinion for the majority, [five other justices wrote concurring opinions] detailing their views on the constitutional and historical inquiry when determining whether a gun-control measure breaches the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

Adam Feldman, who researches Supreme Court patterns and is the author of the [Legalytics] substack, documented a 42% increase in written concurring opinions from 2000 to 2024. He said the court averaged roughly 64 concurrences per 100 majority opinions in 2000–2009, compared to about 80 per 100 opinions in 2019–2024, with a pronounced rise since the mid-2010s.

For years, Thomas led the court in such supplemental writings as he laid out his distinct conservative approach to the Constitution. The newest justice, Jackson, on the left wing, is now close to rivaling Thomas.

Since 2022 when she joined the bench, Jackson has authored 29 concurring opinions, Feldman found, topped only by Thomas at 35 concurrences for the same period.

For comparison, at the other end of the spectrum, the liberal Kagan penned just five concurrences over the past three-and-a-half years. Roberts, who controls many of the court’s most important opinions, wrote only one concurring statement.

Justices increasingly spar in the footnotes

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An otherwise little-noticed January dispute over federal court procedure illustrated Jackson’s tendency. Barrett had the majority in the case, [Berk v. Choy], and wrote an 11-page decision signed by all other justices but Jackson.

Jackson agreed with Barrett’s conclusion that a Delaware affidavit requirement for medical malpractice cases does not apply in federal court. But she strongly disagreed with the Barrett majority over which rules of civil procedure applied.

Jackson laid out her reasoning, across 13 pages and six footnotes, some of which tussled with Barrett over how each was interpreting (or “contorting”) the rules.

At one point, Jackson asserted that a Barrett assumption “jumps the gun.” Barrett responded with a footnote asserting, “we do not ‘jump the gun,’ but rather cut to the chase.”

All seven of the justices who wrote opinions in the tariff dispute last Friday dropped asides in the footnotes.

[Roberts trained his fire] on Kavanaugh’s dissent, noting that Kavanaugh had suggested Trump could impose “most if not all” of the disputed tariffs under statutes other than the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Responded Roberts: “We do not speculate on hypothetical cases not before us.”

Later, as he rejected Kavanaugh’s reliance on a 1981 case, Roberts insisted that the court had stressed the narrowness of that ruling at least five times in its opinion. “That is not quite ‘no, no, a thousand times no,’ but should have sufficed to dissuade” Kavanaugh from using it.

Major questions for one another

---

Much of the separate writing in the tariffs case addressed how a legal approach known as “the major questions doctrine” should be applied. The theory holds that if Congress wants to delegate significant economic or political power to the president, it must do so clearly in a statute.

Roberts concluded that Congress had not granted such tariff power under IEEPA, as Trump had claimed.

“(T)he President must ‘point to clear congressional authorization’ to justify his extraordinary assertion of the power to impose tariffs,” Roberts wrote.

Gorsuch agreed with Roberts’ take but then used the occasion to [criticize other justices’ approaches] to interpreting statutes under the major questions doctrine, largely based on their past writings.

Barrett fired back that Gorsuch was mischaracterizing her position, saying, “he takes down a straw man. I have never espoused that view.”

Kagan, a critic of the constraints imposed by the “major questions” approach, noted in her separate writing that Gorsuch was “insisting that I now must be applying the major-questions doctrine, and his own version of it to boot. Given how strong his apparent desire for converts, I almost regret to inform him that I am not one.”

The desire for converts can indeed motivate a lengthy concurrence. As much as the justices were, by turns, relitigating past cases and defending their positions in the dispute at hand, they were laying out the groundwork for future cases.

As Gorsuch remarked as he closed out his 46 pages, “if history is any guide, the tables will turn….”

Bill Clinton to testify today in House committee’s Epstein investigation

February 27, 2026 / 6:00 AM EST / CBS News

Washington — Former President Bill Clinton will appear before the House Oversight Committee in New York on Friday as part of its investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, marking the first time a former president has been compelled to testify to Congress under subpoena.

The closed-door deposition is a victory for Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, who won the monthslong battle against Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who had vowed to fight the effort. But the Clintons ultimately relented after a bipartisan vote in the committee to recommend holding the couple in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to testify.

Bill Clinton’s appearance comes a day after Hillary Clinton spent hours with the committee. According to Republicans, Hillary Clinton repeatedly said some of the questions asked of her should instead be directed toward her husband.

“The number of times that she said, ‘I don’t know. You’ll have to ask my husband,’ was was more than a dozen,” Comer said Thursday.

The former president has appeared in photos with Epstein that have been released in recent months and took a handful of trips with him decades ago, but has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

In a sworn declaration submitted to the committee last month, Bill Clinton said Epstein offered his private plane to the former president, his staff and his Secret Service detail in support of the Clinton Foundation’s philanthropic work between 2002 and 2003. He denied ever visiting Epstein’s private island in the Virgin Islands, where a number of the late financier’s alleged crimes occurred, and maintained that he had not been in contact with Epstein for more than a decade before his 2019 arrest.

“While Mr. Epstein may very well have attended any of the many hundreds of White House events or receptions during my eight years in office and been photographed with me as were tens of thousands of individuals, I do not recall encountering Mr. Epstein, or any specific interactions with him, while in office,” Bill Clinton said in the declaration.

The former president also did not recall when he met convicted Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell or his interactions with her, but said she later was in a relationship with a mutual friend.

“To be clear, I had no idea of Mr. Epstein’s or Ms. Maxwell’s criminal activities,” the declaration said. “And, irrespective of any intent either may have ever had, I did not take any action for the purpose of helping them to avoid any type of scrutiny.”

In her deposition Thursday, Hillary Clinton reiterated that she had no knowledge of Epstein or Maxwell’s crimes. When asked by reporters after the deposition whether she was confident her husband also had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, Hillary Clinton responded, “I am.”

“The chronology of the connection that he had with Epstein ended years, several years before anything about Epstein’s criminal activities came to light,” she said.

Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the panel, said Thursday afternoon as the deposition was ongoing that Hillary Clinton was “answering all the questions.” Republicans also said after the day ended that she answered everyone’s questions.

Ahead of Bill Clinton’s testimony, Garcia said the committee had “now set a new precedent about talking to presidents and former presidents.” He demanded that President Trump be “immediately” asked to appear before the committee to testify about his own connections with Epstein.

Mr. Trump’s name appears thousands of times in the Epstein files released by the Justice Department. He has denied any wrongdoing.

But Comer said Mr. Trump has already answered questions from the press about his relationship with Epstein.

“President Trump has answered hundreds, if not thousands of questions from you all about Epstein, and I think he’s been very transparent in releasing the documents,” Comer told reporters Thursday.

The president’s answers to the press are not under oath. Mr. Trump, who called the effort to release the Epstein files a “hoax,” eventually supported their release after Democrats and a few Republicans forced a vote on compelling the Justice Department to make them public.

Former presidents have not successfully been compelled to testify before Congress in the past. But several have voluntarily answered questions from committees, including Presidents Gerald Ford in 1983, Harry Truman in 1955 and William Howard Taft a dozen times. Several sitting presidents have also appeared voluntarily.

Hillary Clinton deposition on Epstein ongoing

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/hillary-clinton-tells-house-committee-she-has-no-idea-about-epsteins-criminal-activity/

Trump to tout economy, energy in Texas ahead of Republican primaries

February 27, 2026 11:02 AM UTC / Reuters

U.S.President Donald J. Trump delivers the first State of the Union address of his second term to a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, February 24, 2026. Kenny Holston/Pool via REUTERS [Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab]

• Summary

• Trump to tout LNG production in Texas
• President has not endorsed in competitive US Senate primary
• Trump pushing for Texas Republicans to win back House seats

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas, Feb 27 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump will travel to southern Texas on Friday to tout his economic and fossil fuel agenda, just days before Republicans face competitive primary elections in the state.

Trump has so far stayed out of his party’s high-profile battle over a U.S. Senate seat, but his visit to Corpus Christi places him near several contested U.S. House of Representatives districts where Hispanic voters, an important constituency for Republicans nationally, could determine the outcome in November’s midterm elections.

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The trip follows a warning from a Texas Republican who said her recent loss in a state legislature race, despite Trump’s endorsement, was a “wake-up call” for the party.

The president’s economy-focused event springboards off his State of the Union address, which sought to draw sharp contrasts with Democrats on affordability and immigration enforcement as they aim to gain control of Congress later this year.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Trump will tout his “drill baby drill” agenda in Texas. The Corpus Christi area is the top exporter of liquefied natural gas in the U.S., with 42% of the product nationwide passing through its port.

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Midterm elections are historically seen as a check on the sitting president, and Trump has warned his agenda will be derailed if his party loses power. But first, Republicans in the deeply conservative state must settle on who they want to represent them in November’s general election.

Public opinion polls show Senator John Cornyn, in office since 2002, trailing two challengers – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Representative Wesley Hunt – in Texas’ most cutthroat contest.

Unlike in Louisiana, where Trump encouraged a challenge to the incumbent Republican senator, the president has let the Texans duke it out in a contest made personal with accusations of sexual affairs and political ineffectiveness.

Republican candidates in the Senate and some House races are expected to attend Trump’s event on Friday.

CAN FORCED REDISTRICTING RESCUE REPUBLICANS?

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At the president’s urging last year, Texas Republicans launched a redistricting fight aimed at improving the party’s prospects in U.S. House races. With the new map in effect, Republicans could gain up to five more seats across the state.

Hispanic voters in south Texas are key to the party’s electoral success, said Corpus Christi’s state Senator Adam Hinojosa, the first Republican to represent the Rio Grande Valley in the Texas Senate since 1874.

“We need the job opportunities, we need to make sure that our families are taken care of, we need to be able to afford all of the groceries and things to have a decent lifestyle,” Hinojosa said in an interview.

Crediting Trump’s border policy and pro-oil agenda, Hinojosa said he thought the president’s visit would help energize the Republican base.

Trump has prioritized maximizing U.S. fossil fuel production by rolling back environmental regulations and streamlining permitting for energy projects, benefiting places like southern Texas.

Even so, a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 36% of people nationwide approved of Trump’s handling of the economy while 56% disapproved.

“It’s hard to know if he is perceptive to economic concerns,” Tiffany Ritchie, 50, a self-declared independent in Corpus Christi, said in an interview, noting she voted for Trump for the first time in the 2024 presidential election. “I would like to think he is, however, he is the kind of character who will just kind of throw anything against the wall and see if it sticks.”

Republicans are targeting two Democratic-held border districts: the Brownsville-area seat represented by Vicente Gonzalez since 2016, and the Laredo-area seat held by 11-term Representative Henry Cuellar.

In December, Trump pardoned Cuellar and his wife, but has since backed local Republican judge Tano Tijerina, accusing Cuellar of an “act of disloyalty” for seeking re-election as a Democrat.

“If Donald Trump wants to remind South Texans how terrible the economy is, he can be our guest,” Madison Andrus, spokesperson for the Democrats’ campaign arm, said in a statement.

Reporting by Bo Erickson, Jarrett Renshaw and Nolan McCaskill; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Chris Reese

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韩国总统李在明3月1日起访新三天

2026年2月27日 19:21 / 联合早报

韩国总统李在明将访问新加坡，预计就人工智能及核能领域双边合作展开磋商。 （路透社）

（首尔综合电）韩国总统李在明3月初先后对新加坡和菲律宾进行国事访问，这是他上任以来首次正式访新。

据韩国总统府青瓦台发言人姜由桢公布的出访行程，李在明从星期天（3月1日）起，对新加坡进行为期三天的国事访问，并与新加坡总理黄循财和总统尚达曼会晤。

韩国去年10月举办亚太经济合作组织（APEC）会议时，李在明在庆州与黄循财会面。应李在明邀请，黄循财当时也前往首尔进行两天正式访问。

李在明访新期间，韩新两国会进一步巩固经贸、投资、基础设施建设等现有领域的合作基础，同时就人工智能（AI）与核电等未来产业领域合作展开磋商。

结束新加坡之行后，李在明将续程到菲律宾，同总统小马可斯会谈，并出席商务论坛。两国将进一步深化军工、基建、经贸等领域的实质合作，并巩固在核电、造船、关键矿产、AI等未来工业领域的合作基础。

韩国总统李在明3月1日起访新三天

发布/2026年2月27日 19:21

韩国总统李在明将访问新加坡，预计就人工智能及核能领域双边合作展开磋商。 （路透社）

（首尔综合电）韩国总统李在明3月初先后对新加坡和菲律宾进行国事访问，这是他上任以来首次正式访新。

据韩国总统府青瓦台发言人姜由桢公布的出访行程，李在明从星期天（3月1日）起，对新加坡进行为期三天的国事访问，并与新加坡总理黄循财和总统尚达曼会晤。

韩国去年10月举办亚太经济合作组织（APEC）会议时，李在明在庆州与黄循财会面。应李在明邀请，黄循财当时也前往首尔进行两天正式访问。

李在明访新期间，韩新两国会进一步巩固经贸、投资、基础设施建设等现有领域的合作基础，同时就人工智能（AI）与核电等未来产业领域合作展开磋商。

结束新加坡之行后，李在明将续程到菲律宾，同总统小马可斯会谈，并出席商务论坛。两国将进一步深化军工、基建、经贸等领域的实质合作，并巩固在核电、造船、关键矿产、AI等未来工业领域的合作基础。

13岁少年钓鱼溺毙 遗体领出送往安葬

2026年2月27日 15:41 / 联合早报

警方在答复记者询问时证实，他们在星期四（2月26日）晚上约10时35分接获通报，丹尼尔被民防人员捞上岸后证实身亡。 （海峡时报）

疑钓鱼失足坠河，失踪逾24小时后才被寻获，13岁少年遗体已于星期五（2月27日）中午领出。

13岁的马来少年丹尼尔星期三（25日）下午4时许，跟三名同学到文庆路上段第8B座组屋旁的加冷河钓鱼时，疑为解开卡在水里的鱼线，结果不幸坠河失踪。丹尼尔坠河失踪近30小时后，于星期四（26日）晚上10时30分才被打捞上岸。

丹尼尔的遗体过后被送至中央医院殓尸房，他的两名男家属和一名友人星期五下午到殓尸房，在约下午1时45分领出遗体，移送蔡厝港穆斯林坟场的和平墓地（Pusara Aman）下葬。

星期四晚上发现浮尸并报警的是附近居民法兹里。法兹里告诉《联合早报》，他和几名朋友看了媒体报道后，非常同情丹尼尔和家人，所以决定到河边尽一分力。一行人在星期四晚上9时45分左右，开始从文庆路上段第15座组屋，沿着河岸朝加冷地铁站走。

晚上10时20分左右，他们在第8B座组屋附近，发现河面上有物体漂浮，于是马上报警。这处就是丹尼尔掉入河中的位置。

新加坡警察部队在答复记者询问时证实，他们在星期四晚上约10时35分接获通报，丹尼尔被民防人员捞上岸后证实身亡。

警方已排除他杀，调查仍在进行中。

涉使用已注销车辆等多项交通罪行 三男子被调查

2026年2月27日 15:44 / 新明日报

三名介于16岁至22岁的男子因涉嫌使用已注销车辆及抵触多项交通相关罪行，正接受警方调查。

新加坡警察部队星期五（2月27日）发文告说，警方在2月8日晚上约8时40分接获通报，指武吉巴督西5道发现两名16岁少年在没有驾照的情况下，轮流骑乘一辆电单车。

警员事后到场调查，两名少年也因涉及多项交通相关罪行正接受调查，包括使用已注销车辆、未满18岁驾车、无照驾驶，以及在没受保的情况下使用车辆。

2月15日晚上约10时15分，交警接获怡丰城购物中心疑有车子使用假车牌的通报。警员抵达现场后，发现一辆汽车使用的车牌，与另一辆同颜色、同型号且合法注册车辆的车牌号码相同。调查显示，男子驾驶的汽车已被注销，而22岁的男驾驶员也未持有驾照。男子目前因多项交通相关罪行被调查，包括使用已注销车辆、使用假车牌、无照驾驶，以及在没受保的情况下使用车辆。

警方提醒，已注销的车辆由于没有保险，而且可能不符合道路安全标准，存在严重安全隐患。若由未持有驾驶执照的人驾驶，风险更是进一步加剧，对社区及公众安全造成直接威胁。使用与合法注册车辆（相同颜色及型号）相同的假车牌会带来更高风险，使当局难以追查真正的违规者。这种欺骗行为，可能导致无辜的合法车主被错误指控，而真正的肇事者却逍遥法外。

延伸阅读

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涉骑注销电单车抵触多项交通罪行 16岁少女被查

涉闯交警路障危驾等七项罪 34岁男子星期四面控

交警强调，当局将依法严惩驾驶已注销车辆或在没有驾照情况下犯下严重交通罪行的驾驶员。公众也应保持警惕，若在社区内发现疑似使用已注销车辆或无照驾驶的情况，应及时向当局举报。