NewsNation Chief Washington Anchor and On Balance host Leland Vittert was a foreign correspondent for four years in Jerusalem. He gives you an early look at tonight’s 7 p.m. ET show. Subscribe to War Notes here.  

Will Unity Backfire?

Republicans now line up to accompany Donald Trump to court, among them Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Vivek Ramaswamy and Reps. Cory Mills and Byron Donalds of Florida. At one point today, Johnson appeared to be reading from a script to attack the Trump trial judge’s daughter.

• Thought bubble : When you are checking notes to attack the judge’s daughter, it’s pretty pathetic. 

Bigger picture: Trump’s electability issue in 2024 is the polar opposite of 2016.

• This time around, the base loves him, but swing voters don’t like mean tweets. 
• Swing voters look to a (normal) vice president as the insurance problem on a truly crazy Trump.
• If all the alleged normal adults in the room fly in to attack the daughter of a judge so they can prove allegiance to Trump, well, then who is going to be the swing voters’ insurance policy?

Watch tonight: George Will will discuss whether Republicans’ unity will backfire on Trump. 

Red Hat, Blue Hat

Click here to see the best graphic explaining the cultural divide in America’s economic debate.  

Our version:

• Red Hat: “Make America Great Again” vs. Blue Hat: “Bidenomics, semiconductor independence, solar panel tariffs all to help women and minority-owned businesses strive toward equity while protecting reproductive rights and moving America to EVs” 

To be fair: Joe Biden actually has policy proposals; think what you will of them. Trump mostly has grievances on the stump. 

To be more fair: Trump’s economic policies made people feel really good because they worked. 

Look forward: Biden announced tariffs today on a host of Chinese goods after lambasting Trump for doing the same thing. Tariffs are unquestionably inflationary — even for American-made goods. 

Mental Health Hashtag

Almost since the show started, we’ve questioned the wisdom of glorifying getting mental health help — anxiety and depression diagnoses suddenly became en vogue. 

It’s no surprise that depression and anxiety diagnoses for young adults are up double digits — just watch the ads on TikTok.

Now, an opinion from Lucy Foulkes (@drlucyfoulkes) in the New York Times warns of mental health becoming a hashtag. 

Watch tonight: Dr. Drew Pinsky will be back on to discuss this. 

Tune into “On Balance with Leland Vittert” weeknights at 7/6C on NewsNation. Find your channel here. 

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of NewsNation.