Describe Trump’s State of the Union speech in one word

Final NOTUS Newsletter

Magical Thinking

Bill Cassidy

Senator Bill Cassidy holds his head as Dr. Casey Means testifies during the U.S. Surgeon General conformation hearing. (Tom Brenner/AP)

By Tim Grieve

February 25, 2026 05:01 PM

Good afternoon. This is the Final NOTUS newsletter for February 25, 2026. You can get it in your inbox every day by signing up here — it’s free!

The Latest

The Epstein files released by the Justice Department are missing what The New York Times called “key materials related to a woman who made an accusation” against Donald Trump.

  • The Times said indexes identify four FBI memos stemming from interviews with the woman — and only one of them is in the documents released so far.
  • Larry Summers is resigning from Harvard after revelations about what The Crimson called his “long-standing personal relationship” with Jeffrey Epstein.
  • Bill Gates apologized to his foundation over his ties with Epstein and admitted to having two affairs, but denied doing anything “illicit,” per The Wall Street Journal.

Trump’s surgeon general nominee dodged questions about vaccines at her confirmation hearing. Casey Means said she couldn’t advise women to vaccinate their children because she’s not their doctor. “I’m not here to complicate the issue on vaccines,” she said, adding that “vaccines, vaccine advocacy or anti-vaccine rhetoric has not been part of my message.”

  • Sen. Bill Cassidy asked Means whether she supports access to abortion drugs without an in-person office visit. “I absolutely think that oral contraception should be widely accessible,” she said.
  • And on some of her pro-psychedelics beliefs, Means said what she would say “as a private citizen is in many cases different” than what she would do as surgeon general. But, “Americans are ready to hear about spirituality as it pertains to medicine.”

A federal judge said the administration can’t deport immigrants to places they’re not from without advance notice and an opportunity to challenge their deportation.

Cuba killed four ‘aggressors’ and injured six others after a Florida speedboat entered Cuban waters and shots were fired from “from the offending boat against the Cuban personnel.”

The Hill

Mike Johnson called the allegations against Rep. Tony Gonzales ‘alarming and detestable’ but said he’d let the voters decide what to do about it.

  • Rep. Troy Nehls said it would be stupid for Gonzales to resign because it would make matters worse for Johnson’s tiny minority. CNN’s Manu Raju asked him if some things are bigger than politics. “No,” Nehls said, “not up here, not the way we do what we have to do in the House.”

John Thune threw some cold water on Trump’s SOTU priorities. On issues like drug pricing reforms and housing, Thune said Republicans are “not unanimous,” even if they try to push through another reconciliation bill. “You got to have 50-plus-one to do all that,” he said. “A lot of these things, they’re just not that clear cut.”

Sen. Bernie Moreno wants Congress to back Trump’s tariffs on steel, aluminum and semiconductor chips as part of a reconciliation bill. As NOTUS’ Jade Lozada reports, Trump says he doesn’t need Congress’ support, and Rep. Don Bacon says he’s not going to get it.

In the annals of ‘strongly worded letters,’ Rep. Delia Ramirez’s missive to Kristi Noem is a real banger.

The Administration

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos will be at the White House tomorrow to discuss his company’s bid to buy Warner Bros. and Trump’s demand that it dump Susan Rice from its board, Politico reports.

  • A group of Republican state AGs is asking the Justice Department to block the deal.
  • David Ellison — the head of Paramount Skydance, which is trying to beat out Netflix for Warner Bros. — was at the State of the Union last night as a guest of Sen. Lindsey Graham.

A top Treasury official is leaving after “privately raising objections to White House-backed plans to crack down on alleged fraud within the Somali immigrant community in Minnesota,” The Washington Post reports.

The New York Times reported on Kash Patel’s light work schedule in Milan. The FBI responded by saying whoever leaked Patel’s schedule committed a “criminal act.”

The D.C. bar that offered free beer until Trump’s first SOTU insult ended up giving away a lot of free beer.

Well, This Could Get Interesting

Thank you for reading! Today’s newsletter was produced by Kate Nocera, Matt Berman and Andrew Burton. If you liked it, please forward it to a friend. If someone shared it with you, please subscribe — it’s free! Got a tip or comments to share? Email us at finalnotus@notus.com.